This was supposed to be the year of virtual reality, but barely had 2016 started when Microsoft threw a spanner in the works with the announcement of HoloLens. Rather than taking us to a virtual world, Microsoft's headset pulls virtual objects into our own. Microsoft calls these objects Holograms, much to the chagrin of hologram enthusiasts, but most people know them as tenets of mixed, or augmented, reality. It's already being touted as the next next big thing.
This was the year of VR, until AR stole it
Just as Oculus and HTC should've been dominating the news cycle, Magic Leap, the secretive Google-backed mixed reality (MR) startup, finally broke cover with a Wired feature. Magic Leap is basically promising to do the same things as HoloLens, but better.
This was the year of VR, until AR stole it
Save yourself the wandering because we have found the gift that is perfect for everyone on your list. Remember the iconic View-Master from your childhood? It has gotten a huge digital upgrade and the View-Master Deluxe VR Viewer is one of the most coveted gifts this holiday season.
This is the VR headset you can gift everyone this holiday season (Mattel)
As far as Tim Cook is concerned, people are going to be much more interested experiencing the world through an augmented-reality headset than holing up at home strapped to virtual-reality goggles. That's a major takeaway from an interview Apple's CEO had with ABC News, published Wednesday, in which Cook said he saw bigger possibilities for AR than VR, since AR allows people to be more "present." "There's virtual reality and there's augmented reality -- both of these are incredibly interesting," Cook said in the interview. "But my own view is that augmented reality is the larger of the two, probably by far."
Tim Cook sees a bigger future for AR than VR - CNET
The key investor takeaway is that augmented reality definitely increases the demand for high performance gyroscopes and related products from InvenSense, but questions remain whether the company will obtain any increased business at appropriate margins. With an enterprise value of only $600 million, the stock should remain on any investors radar. The company though needs to demonstrate the ability to command premium pricing for their products before the stock will ever take off.
InvenSense: Is Augmented Reality A Real Opportunity? - InvenSense (NYSE:INVN) | Seeking Alpha