This month could prove that immersive business solutions will start to see greater media hype in the coming months, well into 2024, CES and beyond.
As 2024 continues to build into another foundational year for XR, November will see major organizations unveil their last major updates of the year.
But 2024 will be a monumental year for XR, and with Microsoft, NVIDIA, Amazon, and Apple all making major stakes and investments in the space, what companies do today could have a huge impact on the future of work.
It will be many years before immersive technologies become commonplace in any form, but the current innovation and R&D being driven by major technology companies could shape the coming years depending on a variety of factors.
Microsoft Ignite 2023: Industrial Metaverse Showcase
Ignite 2023 took place online this week through its official digital portal, with Microsoft inviting the general computing industry from its Seattle location to participate and view the company’s innovative workplace solutions, from Copilot, Hololens, Teams, Mesh to Dynamics 365 Guides. .
At Ignite, Microsoft announced plans to introduce new avatars and immersive spaces to its popular Teams application, widely used for workplace communications.
In January 2024, Avatars and Spaces will be available for general use through Mesh, a suite of no-code tools and integrated Unity features that enable enterprise customers to create custom immersive spaces for employee events, training, tours, and more. Product Showcase.
Microsoft plans to provide additional details about the Mesh for enterprise service closer to its general availability release in January 2024. Presenter enhancements, attendee engagement options, and interactivity are among the additional features that will be introduced over the next year.
Additionally, Microsoft announced updates to its Dynamics 365 platform that leverages AI, MR, IoT, and other cutting-edge technologies to deliver new workplace opportunities for users, enabling companies already running Microsoft Teams in AR workflows and those using it. provides benefits. Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 MR headset – a new player in the field of immersive technology.
Just as Microsoft is building its industrial Metaverse roadmap, it is designing the Dynamics toolset to help companies leverage AR and MR devices for industrial applications.
Microsoft noted in Ignite that frontline workers can communicate with Copilot through Microsoft Teams to access information such as work orders.
The company plans to release the feature for free starting in early December this year. Additionally, customers of this service can now access Dynamics 365 Guides and Dynamics 365 Remote Assistance for real-time collaboration with remote experts who can assist users through mobile devices or Microsoft HoloLens 2 headsets.
Microsoft believes that by leveraging these solutions, companies can scale field service operations while advancing digital transformation and meeting the growing demand for immersive solutions in the workplace.
Snap expands Amazon in-app AR e-commerce opportunities.
On Tuesday, Amazon announced a partnership with Snap to test online shopping through Snap’s messaging app, following a recent agreement between the two companies to leverage AR experience services for smart glasses.
Snap, which has a daily user base of 363 million, will continue to integrate these services, allowing users to shop directly on Amazon’s social media platform through AR integration.
The company has had little success with its AR hardware ambitions. But a partnership with Amazon, which is exploring spatial computing, could allow Snap to become a serious e-commerce solutions provider.
Ben Schwerin, Senior Vice President of Partnerships Snapsaid:
Through the combined innovation and technology of Snap and Amazon, we are delivering exciting and fun new experiential experiences for hundreds of millions of Snapchatters. The AR glasses are just the first step in the partnership.
Launch of Meta Quest for Business
Meta Quest for Enterprise is now available. Following a series of reveals last month, Meta is introducing its service with a partial overhaul, following the company offering a VR headset subscription service for businesses approaching the Occulus era.
The Menlo Park-based company has officially launched its enterprise-grade XR device management and deployment hub to help enterprise end users leverage Meta Quest 2, 3, and Pro devices. Meta Quest for Business also helps clients deploy devices and applications across their teams.
Meta Quest for Business is now available to enterprise end users in supported regions such as the US and UK. Meta also offers Shared Mode and Support Plus as additional features of the service.
One of the most notable aspects of the Meta Quest for Business service is that workers do not need a Meta account to participate, something that some have worried about in the past. This is because purchasing the shared mode feature allows workers to participate without a meta account.
Is a new Valve XR headset in development?
this week, Valve Designer Lawrence Yang While talking about the company’s latest mobile gaming device, the Steam Deck OLED, we went into detail about the new XR headset.
The comments noted how Valve acknowledges the overlap in mobile computing technology between the Steam Deck OLED and XR headsets, suggesting concurrent development or research.
explanation :
Clearly, there is a lot of overlap in the technology available to us. Wireless streaming is very applicable to VR. This also helped Steam Deck improve the wireless experience. But it can be done simply by building relationships with component suppliers, hardware partners, etc. The SteamVR team and the Steam Deck team work together. There is a lot of infusion of ideas, parts and technology.
Yang also says many hardware decisions impact Valve when designing the next-generation XR headset, such as miniaturization of computing. “Just as Steam Deck is learning a lot from controllers and VR, future products will continue to learn from everything we want. We got the job done with Steam Deck,” Yang said.
Yang also noted that Valve “doesn’t have anything to announce today related to VR other than that we’re still developing it and we’re continuing to push it forward.”