Sony has sold almost one million PlayStation VR headsets since October.

Sony revealed that they sold almost one million PlayStation VR headsets since the company launched this product back in October. The company did not anticipate having such an incredible success with this device. Sony was pretty skeptical when the device appeared on the market last October. Nevertheless, now Sony provided its specs and reviews of the entire VR marketplace.

The company has offered its concrete numbers to the media, revealing more details about the device’s sales. Andrew House, the Global Chief Executive at Sony Interactive Entertainment, had announced that the company sold about 915,000 PlayStation VR headsets starting with its first day when it was launched in October and up until now.

By the middle of April this year, Sony expected to sell a million VR headsets. Looking at the prospects so far, the company is most likely to overcome that goal and sell a lot more such devices. This headset reached to be so popular that people who knew that the stock would replenish in certain stores, they were always lining up to be able to get one.

House stated that their product is bound to expand its sales to Latin America and they will also strive to improve the availability of PlayStation VR headset. The chief executive of the company argued that the main competitors on the VR market did not yet release their official sales numbers. However, estimates have indicated lower sales.

According to the data provided by the SuperData Research, HTC Vive is thought to have registered sales of about 420,000 devices, and Oculus Rift from Facebook is believed to have sold about 243,000 units by the end of 2016. Apparently, the new PlayStation VR has suggested even from the beginning that it will register stronger sales than the company has initially expected.

The President of Interactive Entertainment Europe and Global Sales and Marketing at Sony had claimed that in October, when the VR headset appeared on the market had significant pre-sales. That is why they had in a way anticipated a flourishing production by the end of 2016. Now, the PlayStation VR from Sony works with a broad range of game hardware and sells for a lower price of $600.

Nevertheless, BestBuy is known to have closed demonstration stations for Facebook’s VR device due to decreased sales.

Image courtesy of: flickr

The smart glasses developed by eSight can help blind people see again.

Bling people have now the opportunity to see again by using these new smart glasses. For instance, Yvonne Felix is legally blind, but she was able to see after this device was implemented for her. She lives with Stargardt disease. This is an early form of macular degeneration. Doctors declared her blind since she was 13 years old.

Felix was curious to test the new eSight 3 smart glasses. She has a big blind spot situated in the middle of her vision which does not allow her to discern colors or have depth perception. She only has a blurry peripheral vision. Specialists argue that legal blindness consists of central vision acuity of only 20/200 or even less, having a visual field of 20 degrees or less.

The normal vision represents 20/20. What Felix has, it is 20/400. Yvonne Felix has lived much of her life in darkness, making use of a walking stick without being able to see her children, reading braille. Nevertheless, her life changes about five years ago when she became a beta-tester for eSight. The eSight 3 camera looks like a smaller version of the VR and AR headsets.

The smart glasses fit over her corrective glasses. The front of the device is outfitted with an HD camera and two sensors. Inside the eSight, there are two powerful prisms and OLED screens. The headset features a processor. The gadget is connected to a battery pack, the battery life being of 3 to 4 hours. The camera collects the images, and the sensors collect the data, helping blind people to keep the image in focus.

The images are processed in the visor, and after that, they are displayed on the dual screens situated at just a few millimeters from the eyes of Yvonne. The remote of the glasses allows Felix to zoom into 24x on pictures. Jeff Fenton, the Director of Marketing at eSight, argued that Yvonne has a vestigial retinal function. The smart glasses stimulate the eye to send more data through the eye to the brain.

When using eSight, Felix has 20/25 vision. Statistics show that there are three hundred million blind people in the world. Three million of them live in North America. They may all be suitable candidates to use the device. The smart glasses cost $9,995.

Image courtesy of: wikipedia

Samsung is bound to launch next year a new VR device called Gear VR 2.

The giant tech company Samsung is working on the development of Gear VR 2 and Gear VR 3 headsets, seeing the AR niche as a significant opportunity. Samsung is already part of the VR world due to its Samsung Gear VR headset. The tech giant became to be successful in the field of virtual reality.

Experts argue that Sung-Hoon Hong, the VP from Samsung, has declared on December 15 during the Virtual Reality Summit in San Diego that Samsung is currently developing two more VR sets. The first device is called the Samsung Gear VR 2. Hong claimed that the VR device would be shortly launched.

However, Samsung is also planning to create another headset based on augmented reality technology already existing from start-up VR company Microsoft’s HoloLens and Magic Leap. The VR business of the South Korean Company is already hugely popular. Based on the data provided by a market analytics firm known as IHS Markit, this year Samsung has sold approximately 5.4 million Gear VR headsets.

We need to keep in mind that the launch of this product happened in November 2015, registering great success. This incredible achievement will provide Samsung the widest VR installed supported by all the leading VR headsets being launched by top brands.

Hong claimed that Samsung’s plans for the future imply focusing on heavily augmented reality (AR) instead of VR. He considers that AR represents a better business evolution for Samsung. In San Diego, at the Virtual Reality Summit, the VP of Samsung, Hong, has declared that augmented reality is the next goal that needs to be achieved by Samsung to propel it to a top position among tech giants.

Samsung is expected to launch its AR glasses shortly after launching its Galaxy S8 next year. The new AR glasses will be launched after the Gear VR headset will appear on the market in February 2017. Next year, the company might also issue a new edition of the Gear VR, but also a new pair of smart glasses. These revolutionary smart glasses seem to be very promising.

Hong has also implemented a very bold idea. He asked Samsung’s fans to come up with new ideas for the developing of the new AR glasses which are soon to be launched.

Image courtesy of: wikipedia

Statistics have shown that the smartwatches from Apple are exceeded by fitness trackers.

Apparently, new statistics have shown that after analyzing the market of wearables, experts have established that fitness trackers have become very popular. Figures have proved that they represent 85% of Q3 sales. Unfortunately, the Apple Watch did not have so much impact on the market or among wearables’ users.

Fitbit was announced by the Charge family of gadgets that it managed to lead the market with a share of 23%. Garmin held 1.3% of the sales, while Xiaomi surpasses Garmin’s record, registering 16.5%. Most of Xiaomi’s sales were recorded in China.

The well-known Apple Watch had slightly exceeded the device from Samsung with approximately 4.9% of the share market. Samsung had dominated the market with a mix of products including both smartwatches and fitness trackers, the records showing a 4.5% of the market share.

IDC has argued that the downswing of Apple for the quarter happened because of the detrimental user interface and the aging spectrum. The analysts of the company have asserted that the success which was registered by Apple in the category of wearables will slowly decay, becoming less sonorous than consumers were used to.

This could happen due to the never-ending challenges which consistently appear on the market, gradually winning more and more curious customers who are willing to try all the new products, not being faithful to a single brand.

Nevertheless, when it comes to the category of smartwatches alone, Apple had maintained its position in the ranking among all competitors, leading over all of them for a while. Then, it only decreased to 41.3% of the market. In this classification, Garmin was categorized on the second place with a 20.5% market share, while the devices from Samsung brought it on the third place with 14.4%.

The third-quarter figures of Apple had shown that they were almost entirely unaffected when Series 1 and Series 2 Apple Watch was launched on September 7th. The devices had an availability of just a few days at the end of the quarter. All in all, IDC predicts that all the smartwatches which are app-running, like those launched by Apple, will continue to fight and win a better place in the ranking, slowly exceeding fitness trackers, surpassing them due to the Apple Watch’s abilities and features which could categorize it as being better than Fitbit.

Image courtesy of: wikipedia

The new Samsung Gear S3 is soon to be launched this November.

The new Samsung Gear S3 was revealed at IFA 2016. The innovative device is now available for pre-orders. Fans are thrilled to find out that they will soon have access to it. The new wearable from Samsung is soon to be launched this November. Officials from Samsung have announced that customers will be able to purchase the new technology by pre-ordering it starting on November 6.

Because competition is the key, AT&T will make available the pre-order service starting on November 4. The release date for the new Samsung Gear S3 is November 18. The wearable has two varieties, two different models being launched. Both Frontier and Classic will be $349.99. The price is not new. Best Buy made it available for the fans before Samsung did.

Experts argued that the price will vary depending on the carrier. AT&T is providing an excellent offer, selling the new wearable for $49.99 if the customer is ready for a two-year agreement and he or she also purchases a smartphone Samsung Galaxy on AT&T Next Every Year or AT&T Next. Another great deal is signing a contract for 20 months with $17.50 per month.

If you are curious to find the difference between Samsung Gear S3 Classic and the Frontier model, we need to take a look at their characteristics. The Frontier version represents the sturdy one, whereas the Classic model is more elegant. Another excellent feature is the option available with LTE support, very useful in case of emergencies.

These are the only differences between the two models. The rest of the properties are approximately the same. The wearable is working on Tizen-based OS. Both models have a screen measuring 1.3 inches and a GPS feature. The display is equipped with a Gorilla Glass SR+. The bodies of the Samsung Gear S3 are made out of stainless steel.

The two models have a certification which guarantees water and dust resistance. They are fueled by an Exynos processor. The battery of the wearable is a 380 mAh one, developed to last at least three days. The storage memory is of about 4GB, having 786 MB of RAM. Among other apps included there is also the Samsung Pay support, making everything easier for their users.

Image source: wikipedia

Oculus controller is competing with HTC Vive device for the title best virtual reality experince.

Mark Zuckerberg announced he would surprise his fans with the new Oculus controller. Oculus Rift fights for supremacy with HTC Vive. Unfortunately, in recent weeks, there has been registered a drop in the number of sales for the VR headset. Other competitors started outweighing the revolutionary device. Fans argue that the headset took too long to be available on the market. Even the customers who pre-ordered the device had to wait months to finally get it.

In the meantime, another competitor arises, HTC Vive has impressive features. VR developers are proud of this device. Some reports demonstrated that Oculus Rift sales had gone up. The most important thing is that the new Oculus controller looks very promising. The controller which was expected for so long by its fans will be at the price of £190. Oculus will have to struggle a lot to bring the audience on its side at the annual virtual reality event, Connect 2016.

Customers are wondering which of the two competing headsets is better: HTC Vive or Oculus Rift? The challenge between these two companies had started a competitive game, fighting for dominance. For all we know, Oculus has surpassed HTC Vive regarding price. Unfortunately, PlayStation VR was not to be exceeded yet. That could be discouraging for Oculus, considering that owning a PS 4 to test your new PSVR is much more accessible than begging for the major gaming setup which can run the games made by Oculus.

Those gamers who want a cheap and an excellent option will wait for the PSVR, especially those fans who own a PlayStation 4. Meanwhile, people who aspire to an unforgettable experience will pay more for the HTC Vive. Oculus Rift is placed somewhere in the middle unless it will announce a price cut for the new controller and the headset. In this way, it could win back a few fans.

If the price should drop to a hundred dollars, Oculus Rift would still be overpriced compared to PSVR, but at least they would share the playground. That price cut could become tempting even for HTC fans, who could give up their HTC option. If Oculus is less expensive, then this will bring the company back at the top, providing a great experience at an affordable price.

Are you curious to test Oculus’ virtual reality device or are you more triggered by HTC or PSVR?

Image source: flickr