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.
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Statistics & Forecasts
Users expected to spend as much as $7.9 billion on VR headsets and $3.3 billion on VR entertainment by 2020, jumping from the $1.6 billion consumers to spend on headsets and $310 million on entertainment in 2016 via IHS report (CNBC)
85 percent of those surveyed said they either already have VR projects underway, or will do so within one to two years, says Yeti report (ZDNET)
Device Announcements
Asus ZenWatch 3 will be launching in November for $229 (PhoneArena)
Oculus unveiled its wireless inside-out tracking headset prototype the Santa Cruz at Oculus Connect (The Verge)
Polar launches M200 sports watch (Digital Trends)
Funding & M&A
Greylock closes $1 billion fund to focus on emerging technologies (TechCrunch)
VRChat raises $1.2M from HTC and Gree (Digital Trends)
Facebook demos social avatars at Oculus Connect (The Verge)
Facebook and Oculus commit $250M+ for VR content, diversity, education (TechCrunch)
Major Milestones
Sulon demos the Sulon Q for the very first time in public (MobileSyrup)
IMAX’s first European VR centre will open before the end of 2016 (TechCrunch)
Oculus to bring VR to the web with the announcement of React VR and Carmel VR browser (TechCrunch)
Microsoft announces new HoloLens Computer Vision research team (MSPowerUser)
The Simpsons go virtual reality to celebrate 600th episode (Yahoo)
Rumours
Science fiction author Neal Stephenson is rumored to be running a creative studio for secretive startup Magic Leap (Business Insider)
Leaked pics of upcoming HTC-Under Armour smartwatch appear (Engadget)
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!