PTC to Acquire Augmented Reality Platform Vuforia from Qualcomm
After Apple acquiring Metaio, another major development took place in the AR field: PTC acquired Qualcomm’s Vuforia.
According to the PTC press release:
PTC today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Vuforia business…
…from Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, for $65 million. Vuforia is the industry’s most advanced and widely adopted augmented reality (AR) technology platform, and will enrich PTC’s technology portfolio and accelerate PTC’s strategy as a leading provider of technologies and solutions that blend the digital and physical worlds.
Under terms of the agreement, PTC will acquire the award-winning Vuforia business, including the developer ecosystem. PTC is committed to continued investment in the Vuforia platform and to the ongoing support and growth of the Vuforia ecosystem.
Vuforia is a mobile vision platform that enables applications (“apps”) to see and connect the physical world with digital experiences that demand attention, drive engagement, and deliver value. Today, Vuforia is supported by a global ecosystem of developers in 130 countries, and has powered more than 20,000 apps with more than 200 million app installs worldwide.
The combination of Vuforia and PTC leverages two transformational technology trends – Internet of Things (IoT) and augmented reality (AR) – to deliver a new class of products that merge the digital and physical worlds. When coupled with PTC’s IoT and analytics platforms, Vuforia unlocks a world of possibilities for creating new ways to design products, to monitor and control products, and to instruct operators and technicians in the appropriate methods of use and service.
Read the rest of the PTC press release here.
Lots of changes over the last few months, so let’s wait and see what the future holds for AR. So far, I can be only skeptical about the latest developments…