Category: M300 Smart Glasses

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Vuzix Posts Business Update and Q3 Financial Status

Since the rise of augmented reality (AR) for business and commercial use, Vuzix and its line of enterprise-focussed smartglasses have come to prominence. The company has now announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2017.

The attention being devoted to AR applications and hardware appears to be paying off for Vuzix, with the company reporting a 141% increase in revenue compared to the same period in 2016. Its line of smartglasses is doing particularly well, hitting the milestone of over $1m for the first time, representing a 171% increase from the same time last year, and a 45% increase from Q2 of 2017.

The company is also reporting gains in revenues from its engineering services area, an increase associated with its work for Toshiba for a project which is expected to complete sometime in the fourth quarter of 2017, which will result in an estimated $221,000 of revenue for Q4 as the new product is moved into production for Toshiba some time in 2018. The opening of the offstore manufacturing plant for the M300 smartglasses line has proved beneficial, allowing for improved gross margins on sales of that product.

“We saw direct product gross margin improvements from our flagship enterprise device, the M300 in the third quarter compared to the second quarter of 2017. And while our third quarter smart glasses sales were impacted by limited supply of inventory due to some manufacturing challenges related to the M300, the Company achieved record quarterly smart glasses product revenue despite these headwinds,” said Paul Travers, President and CEO of Vuzix. “The manufacturing challenges have been addressed by our offshore contract manufacturer and their production line is now producing M300s in high volume. During the third quarter, we continued to leverage our industry leading optics and wearable display technology and added a third Tier-1 consumer electronic customer. This new Tier-1 customer is working with us to develop a consumer product using Vuzix waveguides and projector engines that is unrelated to smart glasses.”

VRFocus will continue to bring you news on developments in the VR and AR industry.

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Vuzix Completes Move To Higher Volume Manufacturing Plants

Vuzix have been steadily ramping up its profile, from creating numerous partnerships with various types of business for access to its smart glasses technology, to appearing at various industry events to promote its technology, Vuzix have become well-known in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) circles. In order to keep pace with the new demand for its products, Vuzix were forced to look for a new manufacturing plant that could provide the volume required.

The company has now successfully completed transition of its manufacturing facilities from its previous smaller base in the USA to a larger volume facility in China. Vuzix have announced that they have scaled operations to the new facility, along with improving the yields and lowerin the production costs for the M300 smart glasses.

Vuzix confirms that the M300 smart glasses now being produced by the Chinese facility have passes rigorous testing, both at the manufacturing plant, and again in New york. The transfer to the new plant in China has meant a 33% reduction in production costs along with considerable increase in production yield. The company says it is anticipating further cost reductions as production levels rise over the rest of the year.

“With the recent rollout of our OS 1.2 firmware update, the introduction of our full M300 accessory line and a reliable and steady flow of production arriving, Vuzix should be well positioned to deliver in volume to our enterprise customers over the second half of 2017”, said Paul Travers, President and Chief Executive Officer at Vuzix.

VRFocus will bring you further news on Vuzix and its AR products as it becomes available.

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Vuzix Announce New European Partner Firms

The team at Vuzix have been busy trying to establish themselves at the primary supplier of mixed reality (MR) and augmented reality (AR) Smart glasses to the world of industry. They have been showing what the technology can do at several trade fairs alongside business partners. Several more names will now be added to the list of Vuzix business partners with the latest announcement.

Three new businesses will be added to the list of European Vuzix Industrial Partners, known internally as ‘VIP’s’. With the addition of the new firms, Vuzix are aiming to improve their reach in Europe.

The first of the companies that have been added is Augmenta, a Finnish firm which develops applications for operations such as production line control.
“We started our smart glass journey by introducing an interaction SDK that brought gesture controls and virtual keypads to the hands of enterprise developers,” said Tero Aaltonen, Augumenta CEO. “We are now expanding our offering by introducing a suite of ready-made applications and a configuration tool that allows our customers to quickly adopt and integrate Augumenta software with their existing IT systems. Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses play an important role in this game with their rugged design and impressive battery life, and we’re proud to promote them as the primary device for our SmartAlert product.”

Vuzix M300

The second firm is DOSCO, a company based in Germany which provides systems for remote technical support and systems for technical documentation.
“Being part of the VIP program gives us direct access to the resources of Vuzix and will significantly support the development and distribution of our solutions for smart glasses, in particular for the new M300,” said Robert Erfle, Managing Director of DOSCO.

The final new company partner is Brochesia, which is headquartered in Rome, Italy. Brochesia provide wearable devises for heavy industry.
“Being a Vuzix VIP Partner grants Brochesia early access to the latest Vuzix smart glasses and SDK packages enabling us to upgrade and test our solutions to support e.g. the latest available technologies such as the M300 devices.” commented Christian Salvatori Chief Technology Officer of Brochesia.

VRFocus will keep you informed on news about Vuzix and the M300 Smart Glasses technology.

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Vuzix Display Smart Glasses at ProMat 2017

Vuzix has been in the news on VRFocus quite a bit recently as they expand their business of supplying augmented reality (AR) Smart Glasses to business customers. The company were demonstrating the flagship M300 Smart Glasses product at the ProMat 2017 expo.

ProMat is an expo aimed at manufacturing and supply chain companies. This year there were more than 850 exhibitors from industry, commerce and government there to look at the latest equipment and technology available.

Vuzix were exhibiting alongside several of its partners to demonstrate how the M300 Smart Glasses technology can assist with functions such as warehouse distribution and quality control. Vuzix partners JASCI Software, Voxware, Murata Machinery and Ubimax were showing how they are utilising Vuzix technology during demonstrations at the expo.

Vuzix M300

“Our VIP partners are a key element of our go-to-market strategy for the M300, with production enhancements that surpass those that enterprise customers have seen or experienced to-date,” said Paul Travers, President and Chief Executive Officer at Vuzix. “The M300 Smart Glasses have been well received and have resulted in a steady flow of orders from our VIP partners. We expect this to continue and grow as we open up availability to all of our VARs and general developer community.”

The M300 Smart Glasses are designed for enterprise and business use and have already seen applications in RFID scanning, assembly assistance and stock control.

The ProMat Expo 2017 took place on 3rd-6th April at McCormick Place in Chicago.

VRFocus will keep you informed on further developments from Vuzix and other VR/AR companies.

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Vuzix Release Business Outlook for 2017

VRFocus have covered a lot of Vuzix’s recent activities. They are in the middle of a big push of their new M300 Smart Glasses technology, partnering with several other companies to provide their product and services. Vuzix has now revealed how it hopes to continue to grow over 2017.

Vuzix announces in the report that they will be moving much of their manufacturing to Asia for further flexability. The company has also received approval to begin distribution of the M300 Smart Glasses in Japan, which should begin shipping in Q2.

A $1.1 million (USD) deal with Toshiba is also announced within the report. Toshiba are working with Vuzix on a customised version of the Smart Glasses, which is expected to begin production in the Autumn.

Vuzix

The report identifies several priorities for the company for 2017. Namely:

  • Increase M300 production with a goal of achieving 1,500 units a month in Q2, while completing our planned transition of manufacturing to Asia to lower costs and further increase our production capacity
  • Broaden our enterprise distribution channels through additional VARs (value added resellers) and other strategic agreements
  • Deploy automated waveguide replication equipment that will allow for volume production along with improved precision and performance
  • Broaden intellectual properties including the filing of numerous new patent applications
  • Prioritize, support and actively engage new interests received from select OEMs

 

  • Manage the growth in operating costs, so that along with our expected increase in revenues we can minimize the funds required for operations as we move towards profitability

Vuzix M300

The report concludes with the following statement from Vuzix: “We should be at the forefront of helping to evolve the world of mobile computing and AR with technology that connects the digital world to the real world through fashionable AR smart glasses. We believe Vuzix is now positioned well on the capital front to execute on our plans in 2017 and grow our business.”

VRFocus will continue to bring you news about Vuzix and other VR industry names.

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Vuzix Partners with KDDI Vist@Finder for video transmission

Vuzix, creators of a series of augmented reality (AR) Smart Glasses like the M300 series, have partnered with KDDI Vist@Finder in order to allow images captured by the camera mounted on the Vuzix Smart Glasses to be transmitted securely.

KDDI Vist@Finder is a system that allows images and videos taken my smartphones, tablets and laptops to be sent securely over networks without compromising the image quality. The system allows for several functions, such as AR overlays with live audio and video streaming and hands-free transmission. With the partnership with Vuzix, the system now has the capability of recording and transmitting from and to Smart Glasses.

As VRFocus has reported before, Vuzix is partnering with a number of companies to supply their product for a range of commercial functions such as RFID scanning and quality control.

Vuzix M300

“Vuzix is excited to pair up our next generation M300 Smart Glasses with KDDI Vist@Finder remote operations supporting system to enable hands-free video transmission via Smart Glasses,” said Paul Travers, President and Chief Executive Officer at Vuzix. “Our M300 Smart Glasses feature a 13-megapixel, 1080p video and image-stabilized auto-focus camera that is ideal for relaying high-quality video content remotely in the field.”

Vuzix will be demonstrating how the new system works on the M300 Smart Glasses at the KDDI booth at CeBIT, a technology expo on Hannover, Germany on 20th March through to 24th March 2017.

VRFocus will continue to bring you news on Vuzix and its Smart Glasses product.

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Vuzix showcase new Smart Glasses at Stuttgart Trade Fair

The line of Vuzix smart glasses has appeared in several stories on VRFocus, hoping to find success with their Android-powered Augmented Reality (AR) Smart Glasses. As such, Vuzix teamed up with several manufacturing partners to display the product at the LogiMAT 2017 Trade Fair in Stuttgart, Germany as part of its VIP programme.

The company’s new M300 Smart Glasses are designed for enterprise use, as such, several of Vuzix’s enterprise partners were demonstrating the functions of the product at their stands. Such as NxtBase Technology, who was demonstrating the M300 use as an RFID scanner, or PCData, using the glasses with their DistribAR software for use in warehouse order distribution. Ubimax, meanwhile, will be showing how the M300 glasses can be used for quality control inspection and assembly assistance.

Vuzix M300

“Vuzix continues to take our award-winning smart glasses solutions to the next level and demonstrate how to increase productivity in specific vertical markets such as logistics,” said Paul Travers, President and Chief Executive Officer at Vuzix. “Vuzix offers one of the largest portfolio of software solutions for the logistics markets because of its VIP and VAR programs. The return on investment is clear in the logistics vertical, thanks to the proven increase in process speeds of up to 30% via hands-free computing, while at the same time reducing the overall error rate, and reducing training time.”

The LogiMAT Trade Fair took place from 14th March through to 16th March 2017, and was focused around Distribution, Materials Handling and Information flow.

VRFocus will keep you informed on developments with Vuzix Smart Glasses and other AR products.