Apple bolsters its long-term AR ambitions with relatively high-profile startup acquisition
Whether the highly anticipated Vision Pro will reach the hands and faces of its earliest adopters during the opening stages of 2024 or later in the year, it's pretty clear that Apple's ambitions for the fledgling AR/VR space go far beyond a cumbersome headset priced at a prohibitive $3,500.
The latest move suggesting some sort of a larger long-term plan is in motion sees a startup called Mira (or Mira Labs) folded into the Cupertino-based tech giant for unknown future hardware and software development purposes.
By no means Apple's largest ever acquisition, this is the first such business maneuver reported in 2023, following two similarly small buyouts last year of a UK-based outfit called AI Music and a fintech startup valued at an estimated $150 million.
As is often the case with Apple's acquisitions of companies not founded by famous rappers, it's unclear how much Mira cost. But whatever it was, it could well prove to be a bargain in the long run, bringing some very impressive technologies (by startup standards) to Apple's already full table.
Described on LinkedIn as the "world's fastest-growing augmented reality company", Mira is responsible for the production of an "award-winning" hands-free headset utilized by the military, as well as workforce professionals across industries as diverse as chemical manufacturing, steel manufacturing, and mining services.
Perhaps most notably from a consumer perspective, Mira's headsets are also currently used in Nintendo World theme parks in the US and Japan, which undeniably makes the company a very valuable asset for Apple.
Obviously, this acquisition doesn't mean that the Vision Pro will be followed up by an enterprise-first smartphone-powered AR headset anytime soon, but clearly, Apple wants to borrow the expertise, know-how, and underlying technologies of as many of these products and companies as possible to dominate the market in a few years.
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