Leading supplier of smart glasses, augmented reality (AR) technologies and products for consumer and enterprise markers, Vuzix, has reported their first quarter financial results for the period ended March 31st, 2018.
The report is a show of an impressive revenue of $1.5 million (USD), an increase of 28% compared to the $1.2 million generated in the first quarter of 2017. The companies smart glasses revenue eclipsed $1.0 million for the third consecutive quarter with $1.2 million of sales, an increase of 30% compared to the $0.9 million for the first quarter in 2017. The Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses sales have increased 101% year-over-year. These numbers are helped by the initial purchase order from Toshiba for Vuzix-developed Windows-based smart glasses and commenced volume production totalling $1.1 million.
“With an expanding set of AR products in place and numerous emerging opportunities, we expect 2018 to be another year of growth for Vuzix,” said Paul Travers, President and CEO of Vuzix. “The industry response to; and interest in the Vuzix Blade launch has been very strong. Our enterprise footprint continues to grow and gain traction, driven by the Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses and successful sell-through to new customers of our Vuzix Basics Video SaaS product offering, which was commercially launched in December 2017.”
Gross profit for the company was roughly $0.2 million (USD) for the three months ended March 31st, 2018, as compared to the gross profit of $0.1 million for the same period back in 2017. This reflects the improved M300 smart glasses margins and higher total overall revenues which have helped the company produce these numbers in such a short time frame. The expense on research and development (R&D) for the three month perio was $2.1 million which again was up compared to the $1.7 million of 2017. The increased R&D efforts were driving by the increase in R&D staff in 2018 versus 2017 for the same period, showing again that the companies continued growth and production efforts are going as planned.
“2018 is off to a strong start.” said Paul Travers, President and CEO of Vuzix: “We expect revenue to expand further in the second quarter fueled by the introduction of several new smart glasses product offerings into the market during the first half of 2018. Volume shipments of M300 type-C Smart Glasses to Toshiba which began at the end of the first quarter are expected to increase significantly beginning in the second quarter.”
Travers continued by saying: “Vuzix Blade Smart Glasses volume production should begin in the coming weeks resulting in shipments to our developer community, customers and strategic partners beginning before the end of the second quarter. Vuzix added approximately 200 M300 pilot programs across a variety of industries and continues to see shifts occurring in the enterprise space as more pilot programs move to multi-site rollouts. We expect 2018 to be another year of significant revenue growth across our markets.”
The report shows that Vuzix has had an impressive start to 2018 with the numbers over set to grow over the course of the year following future deals and products that are already in production. With the M300 smart glasses making waves and Vuzix continuing to prove they are a reliable and trusted business partner, they have started 2018 with a solid performance.
For more on Vuzix in the future, keep reading VRFocus.