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
Canalys says that VR headset shipments topped one million in a quarter for the first time (Forbes)
Forrester: wearables will grow from a $4.8 billion industry last year to just over $9 billion in 2022 (Forbes)
IDC revealed that wearable tech sales in the third quarter of 2017 were up 7.3% from the same period of last year (Wareable)
Apple Watch study finds device can detect an abnormal heart rhythm with a 97 percent accuracy when paired with AI-based algorithm called DeepHeart (TechCrunch)
30% of consumers want health and fitness information from wearable devices (MediaPost)
Juniper Research: within five years, there will be 285 million hearables in use, a growth rate of 46% a year (MediaPost)
Samsung says it has cornered a 50% share in premium smart wearables market (Economic Times)
Device Announcements
VRGE VR headset organizer launches worldwide (VR Focus)
Vuzix Blade launches developer kit pre-order program (PR Newswire)
Oculus Go headsets are now shipping to developers (Road to VR)
FDA clears first medical accessory for the Apple Watch—an EKG sensor (Ars Technica)
Funding & M&A
Mapbox acquires augmented reality activity tracking app Fitness AR (TechCrunch)
Varjo secures $6.7 million investment, first batch of “human eye resolution” VR prototypes shipping to partners soon (Road to VR)
Amazon launches new AR/VR tool for developers (Business Insider)
HTC invests in 26 more AR/VR startups, including Toronto’s Quantum Capture (VentureBeat)
Major milestones
Android Wear lead moves to Stripe (CNBC)
BBC launches VR division with ISS spacewalk experience (Engadget)
Google expands its 3D objects pipeline for AR/VR with the Poly API (TechCrunch)
Google launches Daydream Impact to provide organizations with VR training, equipment rentals (9to5 Google)
Rumours
Magic Leap could call its first AR headset “Magic Leap One” (Road to VR)
Patents reveal see-through iPhones and Macbooks may be part of Apple’s AR future (Next Reality)
Huawei’s unannounced Daydream VR headset pops up in FCC documents (9to5 Google)
This story was originally published on BetaKit.
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