Intel appears to have thrown in the towel on its Basis fitness trackers, telling all users to send them back and saying it will turn off the server they need at the end of 2016. Basis was an early and fairly successful wearables startup, with a wrist device that was one of the first dedicated to serious athletes. Intel, which had never been in a consumer-facing business … [Read more...]
Intel Acquires Recon Instruments
Intel continues its sweep into the consumer wearables market, acquiring Recon Instruments for a reported $175 million. Recon is big in the sports segment of the augmented reality market, making the tech guts of an Oakley ski visor, as well as its own Snow2 and Jet glasses and the Engage smartphone app. Intel was an investor in Recon through its Intel Capital wing, and … [Read more...]
12 Million Augmented Reality Glasses Will Ship by 2020, Says Tractica
The market research firm Tractica estimates that 12 million units of "smart augmented reality glasses" will ship in the next five years. The company counts everything from Google Glass to Oculus Rift and Magic Leap, so they don't seem to be making much of a distinction based on use case. Nonetheless, Tractica estimates that 114,000 units of AR glasses will ship this year, … [Read more...]
Luxottica’s Glass Will Be Out “Soon,” CEO Says; Intel Version Next Year
Luxottica is the world's largest optical goods company, and you may remember that Google has a deal with the company -- sealed a year ago -- to produce a consumer version of Glass. Massimo Vian is one of Luxottica's two CEO's and he told the company's annual shareholder meeting today that its version of Google Glass will be out "soon," the Wall Street Journal … [Read more...]
Vuzix and Pristine Partner for Enterprise Wearables
Pristine builds telepresence enterprise and healthcare applications around wearable technology. Like many companies, it built its first round of products around Google Glass -- understandable as Google was the best-publicized visual wearable, but an unfortunate choice as Glass has retrenched. There are other (and better) visor solutions, though. With Glass off the market for … [Read more...]
Vuzix Sells 30 Percent to Intel for $24.8 Million; Will Enter Consumer Market
We've long believed that the visor company Vuzix was better positioned than most to succeed in the enterprise market. Intel apparently agrees: it announced over the weekend that it's bought 30 percent of the company for $24.8 million, valuing Vuzix at upwards of $83 million. Intel is on something of a finished-products tear in the wearables market. A year ago, there were no … [Read more...]
Salesforce Extends Wearables Further Into the Enterprise
A couple of months ago, we wrote about how cloud software company Salesforce had started a pilot program to incorporate wearables into the enterprise. The company is back now with a progress report, having signed on a bunch of particularly interesting companies. Daniel Debow, SVP of Emerging Technologies at Salesforce, told WTI that the Salesforce Wear package now supports … [Read more...]
Google Glass Goes to Work, as NYTimes Ignores Other Products
Google's PR team appears to have woken up to all the bad press about Glass's lack of usefulness. There's a roundup in the NYTimes today with a long list of pilot programs that are using Glass in medicine and industry. This is a significant pivot in Google's public face on Glass, which has long been focused on selling to the geek-forward developer and gadget community. A key … [Read more...]
Vuzix Looks Ahead: Hands-on With Prototypes
We've already written lots about Vuzix: how it's focusing on enterprise and industry instead of the consumer market, how it's the first actual commercially shipping eyewear wearable. Nothing in this business stands still, though, and Vuzix continues to move ahead. We caught up with CEO Paul Travers at Mobile World Congress. One new product the company's showing is a thin … [Read more...]
CES: Nuance Voice Recognition for Wearables
CES is so last week, but there were a bunch of announcements that you ought be be caught up on so we'll be trickling them out as we can. Nuance, the voice recognition company behind the Dragon Dictate line, has a robust business building its technology into pretty much anything you (or it) can imagine. The company had a pretty busy CES, announcing deals with auto companies, … [Read more...]