Big XR News from Unity, Meta, Apple, STYLY

The industry continues to ramp up as summer comes. The start of the year saw a lot of hype pumped back into the XR space – perhaps some of the most eyes on the space since the Metaverse hype wave.

This is partly due to the Apple Vision Pro, which led to XR having another mainstream moment. Now, the noise is starting to subside. As the rest of the year progresses, audiences and enterprise clients will begin to see how XR vendors keep or drop promises.

Numerous large-scale industry showcases are due later in the year by way of Apple’s WWDC and Meta Connect events – as these moments arise, new trends and industry shake-ups will come with it.

However, will the current mainstream interest continue? XR is gaining traction as more and more businesses, vendors, and solution providers start to understand the value of spatial data for the industry.

Feeling almost like a rocket ship, XR is set to affect various sections and use cases, with NVIDIA posing technologies like RT3D digital twins and simulation as some core future work technologies.

Things may ramp up soon as bystanders look on at how XR industry leaders react to this year’s hype wave. Remember, despite a promising start to the year, the end of the year may look very different – for better or worse.

So, keep up to date with the latest stories from this week to understand where the industry is heading and how the leaders are striving to secure XR’s place in the hands of businesses and consumers worldwide.

Unity Introduces Matthew Bromberg as New CEO/Director

On May 15, 2024, Unity will have Matthew Bromberg as its new Chief Executive Officer, President, and Unity Board of Directors member. The company aims to deploy its engine as an enterprise-grade RT3D design and collaboration platform, specifically for game development and creating XR applications.

Roelof Botha is now the leader and independent director of the Board of Unity, while Jim Whitehurst has been appointed as the Executive Chair of the Unity Board. Previously, they held interim leadership roles following the resignation of Unity’s previous Chief Executive Officer and Chairman.

Matthew Bromberg has over 20 years of experience in the industry and is known for transforming Zynga into an internationally leading mobile game developer and publisher. This experience is relevant to XR’s current advances because many vendors and software developers view XR/spatial headsets as a natural evolution of smartphones and accompanying technology.

Meta’s Ex-CTO Concerned Over Open OS Approach

Meta has recently announced that it’s allowing third-party developers to create applications for its XR products by opening up its Meta Horizon OS. This move aims to provide a more comprehensive range of applications for its Quest product portfolio. On the other hand, Apple is creating a walled garden ecosystem to support its spatial computing vision, which opposes Meta’s new open approach. Meta seems to be trying to compete with Apple’s approach to its hardware ecosystem.

Despite Mark Zuckerberg‘s announcement that sparked interest in an Android-like XR OS, ex-Meta CTO and renowned video game innovator John Carmack expressed concern over Meta’s recent move.

Carmack explained that allowing development partners to access the full Horizon OS for standard Quest hardware “could be done very cheaply and would open up a lot of speciality applications and location-based entertainment systems, but that would be a much lower key announcement.”

Carmack also noted that “Meta already sells the Quest systems basically at production cost, and just ignores the development costs,” so, therefore, Meta open Horizon OS won’t “result in cheaper VR headsets from other companies with Quest equivalent capabilities – even if the other companies have greater efficiency, they can’t compete with that.”

Moreover, the famed developer noted that the new OS “brings with it a tension.” Carmack explains that “because Meta as a company, as well as the individual engineers, want the shine of making industry-leading high-end gear. If Meta cedes those ‘simple scaling’ axes to other headset developers, they will be left, leaning in with novel new hardware systems from the research pipeline for their high-end systems, which is going to lead to poor decisions.”

Apple Vision Pro to Optimise iPhone and iPad Cross-Compatibility

Apple has confirmed it is working on a second Vision Pro spatial computing headset update. The update, named ‘visionOS version 1.2’, is designed to improve the performance and communication between the Vision Pro headset and iPad/iPhone devices.

The new update, which is still in its early beta stages, aims to enhance features like the Persona system, updated in version 1.1. According to Apple, the update will also improve the performance of other products, such as the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. The company seems to have carefully optimised Vision Pro before releasing it to international markets.

Although the update details are still scarce, the beta 1.2 build reportedly includes notable improvements. One of the most significant fixes is related to FaceTime, which previously had a bug that prevented calls from syncing between the Vision Pro and other Apple devices. The update is also expected to create more stable renders of UI when accessing App Store review request APIs, thus enhancing the development of iOS or iPadOS applications on the Vision Pro.

While the changes included in the update are not significant, they are expected to improve the overall usage of the device and help in its broader adoption.

Mitsubishi Corporation Gives Major Funding STYLY

STYLY recently announced that it has received substantial funding from Mitsubishi Corporation to scale its urban AR marketing and entertainment platform. This funding will allow STYLY to enhance its “spatial layer platform,” enabling brands to create and distribute immersive AR campaigns geo-located to real urban environments. These campaigns can be viewed through smartphones or smart glasses, providing a unique, interactive experience.

Thanks to the funding from Mitsubishi Corporation, STYLY will be able to continue developing its ambitious goals of creating large-scale immersive brand campaigns with the help of a large-scale business operator. In addition, STYLY plans to target Mitsubishi Corporation’s commercial facilities, which will speed up the development of domestic and international real estate and urban projects.

STYLY also stated that the funding from Mitsubishi Corporation would help the spatial data firm collaborate with other companies to create new and experimental media. Several sectors of Mitsubishi Corporation, including environmental energy, materials solutions, mineral resources, urban development & infrastructure, mobility, and the food industry, may leverage STYLY’s solutions.