XR Industry News

Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is making its latest Spectacles AR Glasses more affordable to students and teachers with a new educational discount that cuts the $1,200 launch price in half.

Initially released in September 2024, the company’s fifth-gen Spectacles (called Spectacles ’24) are primarily targeted at developers, priced at $100 per month for a one-year commitment.

While Snap’s latest AR glasses made some key improvements over the fourth-gen device released in 2021, including a wider field-of-view, better resolution, the addition of hand-tracking, and an overhaul to its software stack, the price seems to have been a sticking point for students and teachers looking to build and learn about AR apps.

Now, the company is rolling out a new student discount that cuts the total price of Spectacles in half—just $49.50 a month for 12 months ($594), or a single payment of $594 and an additional $49.50 payment one month after ($643.50).

Those interested in nabbing the deal need a .edu email address, or other email address from an accredited educational institution. Students and teachers in all supported regions can take advantage of the discount too, which includes the US, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, and the Netherlands.

You can learn more about about Snap’s latest Spectacles in our deep dive explainer from last year, including specs, capabilities, and software.

Even with onboard AI, Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses aren’t as smart as they could be, since the glasses lack any sort of display for doing simple tasks, like reading incoming messages. Now, a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman maintains Meta is not only looking to expand its line of smart glasses with the inclusion of a sportier model this year, but also a high-end model that includes a built-in display.

According to sources familiar with the situation, the report maintains that Oakley-branded smart glasses designed for athletes are set to launch this year. Additionally, Meta’s Reality Labs is reportedly preparing to release a new pair of high-end smart glasses featuring a built-in display, targeted for a 2025 debut.

Reportedly codenamed ‘Hypernova’, the high-end smart glasses will again be built in collaboration with EssilorLuxottica, the French-Italian creator of a host of eyewear brands, including Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Persol.

It’s also reportedly expected to cost around $1,000—a fair sight beyond the current model of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which start at $300.

The report also makes mention of touch-sensitive frames or wrist strap controls as input methods, the latter of which was shown off with Meta’s Orion AR glasses prototype.

Provided reported details are true, the effort represents Meta’s next step in creating all-day AR glasses. Unlike Orion however, Hypernova is said to include a “small display,” according to a Financial Times report from December, which would likely to be used to show notifications or responses from Meta’s virtual assistant—not the sort of full-featured, stereo depth overlay expected from AR glasses.

If you wan to learn more about the differences between AR glasses and smart glasses, check out our handy primer.

Meta’s rumored next-gen smart glasses also represents a heating up of the segment. It was reported in December that Samsung would be unveiling its own smart glasses this month to rival Ray-Ban Meta.

The potential Samsung smart glasses reveal is rumored to take place at its January 22nd Unpacked 2025 event, where the South Korean tech giant is also expected to officially announce its line of Galaxy S25 smartphones.

Infinite Reality, a company building an engine for creating immersive web content underpinned with WebXR support, announced it has raised a whopping $3 billion to continue building the company’s “vision for the next generation of the internet.” Not only is this a huge fundraising round, such an investment coming from a single private investor is highly uncommon.

Founded in 2019, Infinite Reality’s flagship product is iR Studio, an engine for building immersive websites that represent visitors as avatars in a virtual environment. iR Studio sites support multi-user and WebXR by default, meaning sites built with the engine can be visited in any XR headset that supports WebXR, directly through a web browser.

The company announced today that it has raised $3 billion in additional funding, bringing its valuation to $12.25 billion. For comparison, a ‘unicorn’ (a startup valued at $1 billion) is a commonly cited benchmark for a highly successful tech startup. That makes Infinite Reality’s $12.25 billion valuation quite rare.

Even rarer, however, is that this $3 billion investment was purportedly made by a single private investor. While there are often $1+ billion investments or acquisitions in the tech world, the money usually comes from an investment firm, a major corporation, or a combination of the two, rather than an individual.

The investor is said to have a portfolio that “focuses on global technology and real estate investments.”

While the identity of the investor has not been disclosed, the sheer amount of the investment likely whittles the list of possible investors down to someone among the 1,000 wealthiest people in the world.

Ashcroft Law Firm, the firm representing the investor in the deal, provided a statement on the client’s behalf:

Our client has made and evaluated several investments in the technology sector. What compelled this investment was not just [Infinite Reality CEO’s] stated vision for the product itself, but his commitment to giving customers ownership of their data. As everyone understands, it is a crucial time for businesses of all sizes to own their data, customers, and intellectual property as AI gains momentum in the marketplace. Recognizing the significance of scalability and mass marketability, our client was particularly impressed by what he believes is iR’s revolutionary product, which caters to individuals and artists seeking to build their brand image with immediate global reach while servicing clientele from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. It is our client’s belief this investment underscores a pivotal move towards empowering users and redefining ownership in the digital age.

From Infinite Reality’s side, the company says the funding is a win for building a next-generation immersive internet and giving businesses control of their own data.

“While we are excited that our ability to secure this level of funding validates our mission to build an immersive experience platform that will power the next generation of the web, we are absolutely ecstatic to share this news with our customers: businesses all over the world,” says John Acunto, co-founder and CEO of Infinite Reality. “The ability to provide them a platform where they can not only create a great immersive environment, but one where they own their data, own their customer, and own their experience means the world to Infinite Reality—and to me personally.”

Despite its focus on the immersive web, and considering the amount the company has raised, Infinite Reality is not particularly well known in the XR space. In fact the company has seemingly grown into its own little conglomerate, having made several acquisitions of its own over the years.

On one hand, the company has made strategic acquisitions like the AR tech company Zappar, avatar company Action Face, and the immersive web company Ethereal Engine. But the company has also made a series of seemingly disjointed acquisitions like the entertainment and esports business RektGlobal. And, further afield still, the acquisition of the Drone Racing League.

The huge investment by a private investor and Infinite Reality’s assimilation of several different companies certainly make for a unique—but uncertain—situation.

Sony announced its previously revealed XR standalone for enterprise is now called ‘XYN’, which the company is targeting at spatial content creators.

Initially unveiled at CES last year, XYN (pronounced ‘zin’) packs in some impressive displays, offering 13.6MP (3,552 × 3840) per-eye using Sony’s own ECX344A OLED microdisplay.

The display is capable of 90 FPS and 1,000 nits (at 20% duty cycle), with 96% DCI-P3 color coverage, putting it above Apple Vision Pro in terms of resolution and color accuracy.

We got an opportunity to go hands-on with the pre-XYN prototype in July, back when it was still being referred to as the Sony SRH-S1 “content creation system.”

Here’s the short of it: on one hand, the headset’s ergonomics, flip-up design, and display clarity were all great. On the other, the system’s stylus-ring controller combo was very poorly tracked during our demo, and the content shown wasn’t well optimized for its internal Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset.

Beyond that, information is still thin on the ground. XYN’s price and release date are still uncertain, which is a baffling move as far as product announcements go.

What is known however is that its XYN Motion Studio PC companion software is coming out in March 2025, which supports connection with 12 ‘mocopi’ sensors for more seamless motion capture workflow.

Additionally, Sony is also launching what it calls its XYN Spatial capture solution, which converts images captured with a mirrorless camera and proprietary algorithms into high-quality, photorealistic 3D CG assets.

Notably, the headset itself is said to support “a wide range of third-party tools,” according to XYN’s press release.

That said, you probably shouldn’t expect XYN to compete with Quest on the lower end in terms of price-performance, as Sony’s standalone is targeting businesses and professional users. Notably, two color ways have been seen on the showroom floor at CES 2025 this week, with a black colorway for prosumers and a grey scheme for enterprise.

The Pimax Dream Air headset represents a new area of focus for the company. While most of its headsets up to this point have been necessarily bulky to achieve their signature large field-of-view, the Dream Air aims to make a headset that’s compact but still feature-rich. One of those features—a headstrap that automatically tightens—would be an industry first.

Priced at $1,900 and purportedly shipping in May 2025, Pimax’s Dream Air headset aims to take on an emerging segment of compact high-end PC VR headsets like Bigscreen Beyond and the Shiftall MaganeX Superlight.

But it wouldn’t be Pimax if it didn’t make additional ambitious promises which risk pulling the company’s attention away from delivering its products on time and as promised. For the Dream Air, that additional promise is an optional compute puck which the headset can plug into to become a standalone VR headset. The company is calling the puck ‘Cobb’, and says it will include a Snapdragon XR2 chip and battery. Oh, and don’t forget the optional SteamVR Tracking faceplate.

Speaking of pulling the company’s attention… the announcement of the Dream Air continues Pimax’s trend of revealing new products before delivering on those it has previously announced. The company’s Crystal Super headset was announced back in April 2024 and originally planned for a Q4 2024 release, but is now said to be releasing sometime in Q1 2025.

As for the Dream Air, it will purportedly be compact and also full of a wishlist of specs and features:

• Weight of 200g
• Resolution: 13MP (3,840 × 3,552) micro-OLED per-eye @ 90Hz and “HDR”
• 102° field-of-view
• Inside-out tracking
• Motion controllers & hand-tracking
• On-board audio
• Optional prescription lenses
• Eye-tracking
• Automatic IPD and automatic strap tightening

That last one—automatic strap tightening—is a feature that hasn’t been included in any major headset to date. It’s an interesting idea considering the challenge of fitting a headset comfortably; many users want to crank their headset tight to their face so it won’t move, but the most comfortable way to use a headset is to balance tightness with stability.

The design of the auto-tightening strap also looks carefully considered. While we’ve only seen renders so far, it appears the tightening mechanism is hidden under fabric, making the tightening of the headstrap looks like it’s simply shrinking in place.

If the headset could effectively dial in the ideal tightness, it would be a boon for many users. Dream Air also has automatic IPD adjustment, which sets the distance between the lenses to match the user’s eye width (something most people also aren’t good at doing manually).

While it remains to be seen if Pimax can deliver something as svelte as promised, for now it looks like the company is flexing an industrial design muscle that’s been largely hidden by the utilitarian and boxy style of its previous headsets.

However, Pimax isn’t giving up those boxy designs of yore. The company says that a compact headset is a new area of focus for the company, but it will continue developing its larger and wider field-of-view headsets.

Pimax is already taking pre-orders for the Dream Air, with a price of $1,900 and an expected release date of May 2025.

OpenXR is an open standard made to improve compatibility between XR software and XR headsets. Google—one of the biggest tech companies in the world—is adopting the standard right out of the gate, joining other major firms like Meta and Microsoft. Other players (like ByteDance recently) also support the standard, cementing it as not just an open standard, but an industry standard. And while the vast majority of major XR companies now support OpenXR, a major holdout remains.

Initially announced in 2017, OpenXR is an open standard that makes it easier for developers to build XR applications that can run on a wide range of XR headsets with little to no modifications. While major players in the space like Meta, Microsoft, Valve, HTC, and plenty more all support OpenXR, the industry’s big holdout is—can you guess? Apple.

Apple is somewhat notorious for rejecting industry standards and forging its own path; sometimes the company sticks to its own proprietary formats and other times ends up adopting the industry standard in the end.

Vision Pro not only doesn’t support OpenXR, but it doesn’t have built-in support for motion-tracked controllers (which most existing XR content requires). If Vision Pro supported OpenXR, it would be significantly less work for developers to bring their XR apps to the headset (though the lack of controllers still poses a major hurdle).

As ever, Apple is the odd one out.

Meanwhile, Google wasted no time confirming its newly announced Android XR platform will support OpenXR, making it easier for developers to port content that was built XR apps for headsets like Quest.

Google says Android XR is already compatible with OpenXR 1.1, and the company has built out some of its own ‘vendor extensions’ which are new capabilities that extend what OpenXR can do on specific devices. Vendor extensions sometimes go on to become part of future versions of OpenXR.

Last month Pico (ByteDance’s XR division) also announced that its runtime is now compliant with the OpenXR 1.1 standard on Pico 4 Ultra, with plans to bring support to Pico 4 and Neo 3 by mid-2025.

Pico also has its own ideas about where the standard should go in the future. The company recently presented a framework for standardizing the way that XR applications can run simultaneously so users can run multiple XR applications in a shared space. Pico says it’s advocating for this approach to the OpenXR working group, and industry body which guides the evolution of the standard.

With the addition of support from both Google and Pico, OpenXR has truly achieved industry standard status, even if the odds of Apple ever adopting it remain slim.