Behind the Scenes of Giants and Challengers in 2023

Apple Shines at a Revolutionary Meeting

With its custom micro-OLED display with more than 23 million pixels, a 3D camera, intuitive control through eye and hand movements, as well as spatial audio, these headsets push the limits of immersive technology. Powered by the powerful M2 processor exclusively designed to handle complex calculations for an immersive experience and the R1 coprocessor, this technological gem will clearly compete with leaders like Meta and Microsoft in terms of performance.

However, Apple is adopting a different strategy in the VR/AR world, emphasizing professional apps and offering a very limited catalog of games in "Apple Arcade."

At the same time, in the latest news, AOUSD, the result of collaboration among Apple, Pixar, Adobe, Autodesk and Nvidia, is developing a creative era. Vision Pro integrates with open source OpenUSD 3D animation technology, opening new horizons in mixed reality. This revolutionary convergence expands the possibilities between imagination and innovation. Although headsets seem promising for gaming, Apple appears to be prioritizing other apps down this road for now.

XR Headset
Develops the Dawn of Augmented Reality

The XR industry impantiently expects the inminent lanching of the augmented reality with Standalone headsets as the ones from Vision Pro (from Apple), Pico 4, (from Pico), Quest 3 / Quest Pro (from Meta), and XR Elite, (from HTC Vive), which will shape the next era of immersive technology. These announcements create a sense of excitement and promise for the future of augmented reality, while Sony, with the PlayStation VR2, still doesn't strengthen the virtual reality connected to the iconic PS5.

The industry is Undermined by the Giants that do Not Stop finding Opportunities

Tencent, the Chinese giant, recently made a strategic decision by ending its own virtual reality headset project to partner with Meta, a global leader in the sector. This bold initiative was fueled by the rise of Pico, owned by ByteDance in China.

Meanwhile, Meta is shining with promising quarterly results, driven by a significant increase in its advertising revenue. The company is also betting on Llama 2, its language model, as well as artificial intelligence to drive its future growth.
Likewise, following the launch of the Apple Vision Pro headset, Meta is also reported to be considering collaborating with LG to launch a successor to its Quest Pro VR headset in 2025, using LG screens and components.

Google's return with AR glasses for Android is also something important to take into account. In collaboration with Samsung, the two companies want to join forces to create XR headset that will compete with the Vision Pro ones. However, it will be very important to consolidate trust between the two to surpass Apple.

Microsoft, a leader, has chosen an innovative path when moving the Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK) to an independent entity on GitHub, with major partners such as Qualcomm and Magic Leap. This initiative aims to promote the development of interconnected immersive applications on different platforms, the development of which is planned for this year 2023.

Even at Microsoft, a strategic decision was made to transfer the rights from Activision Blizzard to Ubisoft. This approach aims to preserve fairness in the cloud gaming market and ensure a healthy competition. Ubisoft thus obtains the rights to ABK games for PC and consoles for the next 15 years.

The entire industry is seeing bigger and bigger gaps between big and small representatives, with some interesting strategic moves as well.