Google's Android apps are coming in 3D via Xreal as competition with Apple's Vision Pro heats up

BEIJING — Games and movies connected Google Play Store apps tin present beryllium viewed successful 3 dimensions via a caller Android mobile instrumentality from augmented world glasses shaper Xreal, the Alibaba-backed startup said Tuesday.

The Beam Pro, the company's latest product, is simply a smartphone-like instrumentality that tin beryllium utilized with AR glasses arsenic a virtual mouse, and links the headset to Google Play Store apps including those for gaming, movie streaming and societal media.

Augmented world imposes integer images implicit the existent world, giving idiosyncratic wearing AR glasses the content of being successful a 3D virtual space.

Xreal's latest merchandise motorboat is an denotation of however Alphabet is keeping afoot successful the headset abstraction aft retiring Google Glass, adjacent arsenic Apple launched its wide anticipated VR offering this year.

Apple's Vision Pro allows users to spot apps and a digitally captured mentation of the existent satellite utilizing what the institution calls spatial computing technology.

Xreal sells a scope of AR glasses, immoderate arsenic airy arsenic 72 grams (2.5 ounces), that tin show the surface of a connected laptop, smartphone oregon gaming console. The Beam Pro, which connects to the glasses via a cord, is acceptable to statesman U.S. deliveries by August and has a starting terms of $199.

"We're hoping this 1 tin yet became the leader merchandise that radical gonna truly like," Chi Xu, laminitis and CEO of Xreal, told CNBC successful an interview.

"I deliberation this really [is] gonna beryllium the caller class standard," helium said, adding immoderate smartphone makers mightiness "actually privation to spell this route."

Xu said portion of the situation for wider AR glasses adoption has been the deficiency of content, and the inability to incorporated user-generated images.

That's starting to alteration this year. The Beam Pro has 2 cameras that tin seizure pictures and videos for three-dimensional viewing successful AR glasses, akin to Apple Vision Pro's advertised quality to seizure "3D spatial photos and videos."

Xreal said the Beam Pro uses Nvidia CloudXR exertion for representation rendering and Qualcomm's Snapdragon spatial computing platform. The startup said it is besides collaborating with Amazon Web Services to research ways for improving the product's processing powerfulness and functions.

According to IDC Research, Xreal had the largest marketplace stock successful planetary AR headsets successful 2023.

"Companies specified arsenic XREAL and Rokid demonstrated that determination is an assemblage for AR glasses to devour gaming and multimedia contented without spending thousands of dollars, and this volition nary uncertainty pull the attraction of different companies seeking to bash the same," Ramon T. Llamas, probe manager with IDC's Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality team, said successful a study successful April.

A brace of Xreal AR glasses costs astir $200 to $400, depending connected the exemplary and income promotion.

That means a acceptable of Xreal AR glasses and Beam Pro costs importantly little than $1,000. Apple charges $3,500 for its Vision Pro.

Xu said Xreal has sold "really adjacent to 400,000" AR glasses since the institution launched successful 2017. He said mean play usage is astir 4 hours, with the apical 15% exceeding 10 hours a week.

The institution said successful January it had shipped 350,000 AR glasses. Around the aforesaid time, Xreal said it received a $60 cardinal injection that valued the startup astatine much than $1 billion.

Xu said helium expects tech glasses volition germinate successful 3 directions astatine the aforesaid time, ranging from a heavier and pricier virtual world headset to a light-weight framework that tin beryllium worn each the time.

"Unfortunately, we won't spot the benignant of iPhone infinitesimal wherever everybody is converging to conscionable 1 point," helium said, noting the assortment of headset experiences. "I judge antithetic radical find antithetic benignant of spirit and operation there. But each of them haven't taken disconnected yet."

It's unclear however galore Vision Pros Apple has sold since it launched successful the U.S. earlier this year. The headset is owed to launch extracurricular the U.S. connected June 28, opening successful mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

The Beam Pro launched successful China successful precocious May. As of June 12, it had reached conscionable nether 5,000 orders, Xu said, adding helium hoped that by the extremity of a mid-June promotional period, orders would scope astir 10,000.

By precocious August oregon aboriginal September, Xu expects the Xreal Beam Pro volition beryllium capable to usage 5G cellular networks successful summation to Wifi.

Xu said 5G enactment creates caller opportunities for the improvement of unreality gaming, and that Xreal is already successful talks with large planetary unreality gaming companies.

"I deliberation this 1 [is going to] bring the unreality gaming to the adjacent level because, honestly, if you lone play unreality gaming connected a compartment phone, the size of the surface didn't marque that overmuch sense, but [when] you tin enactment AR glasses there, you person a monolithic screen," Xu said.

Cloud gaming relies connected distant servers and an net transportation to connection radical a creaseless gaming acquisition with conscionable a tiny record download.

As for non-gaming applications, Xu said Xreal's strategy is to physique connected people's existing technological habits utilizing smartphones and changing that dilatory into a 3D space.

"We're not trying to alteration people's mode of utilizing exertion dramatically, right?" helium said. "We're trying to instrumentality tiny steps and marque that faster."