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.

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.

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.

Businesses have been moving their data operations to the cloud for years, but the low latency, fast speeds, and decentralized architecture of 5G networks will accelerate this trend and create opportunities for financial services firms to design much more flexible teams and offices.

Once relegated to the children’s market, virtual characters are entering the mainstream in China. Fictional as these digitally rendered avatars may be, they hold real jobs, from pop star to influencer, to even news anchor. And they’re becoming increasingly interactive and humanlike, thanks to improvements in technologies such as AI, motion capture, and virtual reality (VR). Recent advancements in augmented reality (AR), in particular, have enabled virtual avatars to step out of social media and make live appearances alongside flesh-and-blood celebrities.

On today's episode, we discuss Facebook and Apple's next virtual and augmented reality moves, Netflix cracking down on password sharing, whether Google and Facebook killed the concept of "free," what Americans will do with their stimulus checks, how ESPN+ will do on Hulu, where in the world there is a giant plughole in the ocean, and more. Tune in to listen to the discussion with eMarketer forecasting analyst Rini Mukhopadhyay, senior analyst Sara M. Watson, analyst Blake Droesch, and principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Jeremy Goldman.

Although the benefits of 5G for financial services firms are less flashy than in other industries, lower latency, faster speed, and improved reliability will play a big role in the financial services sector.

5G will become one of the most promising technologies for facilitating healthcare’s digital transformation. This report analyzes five patient applications of 5G. It also explores forward-looking organizations embracing 5G and how healthcare organizations can follow in their footsteps.

5G technology is poised to transform how media, entertainment, and marketing are produced, distributed, and consumed. This report discusses five ways that next-generation wireless networks could propel industry growth.

5G networking services are starting to gain traction with consumers—and the retail industry. This report explores the role of 5G in the retail industry and discusses five applications of 5G wireless networks that can enhance or transform retail.

In addition to building next-generation smart network infrastructure, 5G startups are piloting use cases across industries that take advantage of the performance advancements of 5G connections.