Welcome to The Wearable Weekly, your trusted guide to all things wearable tech. If you only have time to read one thing about wearables this week, this is it.
Don’t forget to subscribe to The Wearable Weekly using the form below to make sure it hits your email inbox every week!
Statistics & Forecasts
Wearables saw a 47% penetration rate in China in December 2016 (Business Insider)
Augmented and virtual reality headsets expected to grow at a five-year CAGR of 108.3%, according to IDC’s newly-launched AR/VR tracker (IDC)
Fitness trackers in the lead as wearables market grows 3.1 percent in the third quarter, according to IDC (BusinessWire)
Device Announcements
Pimax to unveil 4K per eye, 200-degree field of view VR headset at CES 2017 (UploadVR)
Google will be launching two flagship smartwatches running Android Wear 2.0 in Q1 2017 (The Verge)
Safilo partners with InteraXon to create a mindfulness device (MobileSyrup)
Meta 2 is now shipping (Fast Company)
Misfit launches hybrid smartwatch Phase (TechCrunch)
LG debuts Tone Studio wearable speaker (Engadget)
HTC confirms they will not reveal Vive 2 at CES (MobileSyrup)
Funding & M&A
Neurable secures $2 million in seed funding to develop brain-controlled software for AR/VR (TechCrunch)
Oculus acquires eye-tracking startup The Eye Tribe (TechCrunch)
Snapchat buys AR company Cimagine (Reuters)
Lumus confirms another $30 million in funding (Road to VR)
Superflex, a powered clothing company spun out of SRI International, raised a $9.6 million Series A round (The Verge)
Major Milestones
Facebook launches VR pop-up stores (USA Today)
Samsung Gear VR browser gets WebVR (Engadget)
Pokemon Go launches on Apple Watch (MobileSyrup)
YouTube adds PSVR support (UploadVR)
London-based wearable company VINAYA has gone into administration (Business Insider)
Fitbit reaches #2 spot on App Store chart over holidays (Wareable)
Fitbit Charge 2 software updated with workout pausing, DND mode and more (CNET)
Fitbit signs corporate wellness deals with Pitney Bowes, SAP, and more (ZDNET)
Jaunt launches app for PSVR (Variety)
Rumours
Microsoft patent hints at AR tracking your entire life (CNET)
Apple patent suggests a much thinner Apple Watch is in the works (Fortune)
Subscribe to The Wearable Weekly
Don’t forget to subscribe to The Wearable Weekly using the form below to make sure it hits your email inbox every week!
Feature image via UploadVR
