The consumer VR headset market is poised to enter a renewed stage of competitiveness focused on creating digital ecosystems—Apple’s forte.

The “metaverse” has become one of the hottest topics among marketers globally, especially after some major investments into the hardware and software segments by Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft. And in China, tech companies are already staking their claim in the trend.

Nearly 10 years after the failed Google Glass launch, Facebook and other device makers are trying, once again, to make smart glasses mainstream.

Is AR-enabled doctor collaboration a lifeline for telehealth companies? Teladoc is bringing augmented reality-enabled surgery collaboration to its provider partners—a signal that other telehealth companies could steer into new provider-facing tech as telehealth usage drops off.

When Amazon starts a new business, competitors scrap business plans and markets shudder. We examined 19 of Amazon’s divisions to help parse how the company fuels its flywheel to keep driving the virtuous cycle.

This quarter, we are adding TikTok to our social media update series, which analyzes key developments for marketers from the major social platforms.

Facebook’s CEO believes its hefty investment in AR and VR could make it a powerful player in the next stage of the internet. The proclamation comes amid rampant regulatory scrutiny and slowing user growth among Facebook’s core products.

Watch AR ecommerce at Snapchat's quarterly earnings: The company is sure to give more details on its push to make AR shopping a bigger part of its platform, especially after announcing two major partnerships earlier this week.

The move to integrate ads into VR experiences could help Oculus loosen its dependence on Facebook’s more profitable ventures. The company’s recent VR acquisitions could allow it to create VR content with targeted ads seamlessly built in.

Facebook’s consumer VR advantage: Recent VR headset announcements show device-makers are increasingly pivoting toward enterprise customers as a result of Oculus’ unbeatable price point.

On today's episode, we discuss whether augmented reality is the future of marketing, how Clubhouse launching on Android can help the social audio platform grow its user base, how much the pandemic changed boomers' online behavior, whether "buy now, pay later" can move beyond retail, how to help people find something to watch on Netflix, how to swim up in the sky, and more. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer analysts Nina Goetzen and Daniel Keyes, and principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Jeremy Goldman.

Instagram for Kids: Eroded user trust and heightened regulatory scrutiny are threatening to bury Facebook’s plan for a version of Instagram geared towards children. That could prove disastrous for Facebook’s future growth.

In-store shopping will remain a crucial part of the retail sales funnel in China, even as ecommerce players continue to rack up record gross merchandise value (GMV). Pre-pandemic, ecommerce was already disrupting brick-and-mortar retail, but over the past year, retailers began to innovate more offline, leveraging new and existing technology.

Extended reality (XR) technologies are still mostly related to gaming, entertainment, and social media, but their applications are evolving quickly as more consumers and businesses test out immersive experiences.

Medtronic and Surgical Theater partnered to use AR to boost real-time neurosurgery visualizations. While hospitals like Johns Hopkins are turning to AR to streamline surgeries, it’ll likely take some time before cash-strapped hospitals can hope for wide-scale implementation of the tech.

Extended reality (XR) technologies—including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR)—are still in the early phases of adoption, but they are evolving quickly. While most use cases for VR and AR are still related to gaming, entertainment, and social media, the variety of applications is expanding as more consumers and businesses test out immersive experiences.

This report provides our latest forecasts for VR and AR users in the US and examines some market dynamics affecting the maturation of immersive technologies.