Qualcomm Sells Off Vuforia Augmented Reality Business

The Augmented Reality (AR) market has seen a significant transition of power following the sale of one of the industry’s leading platforms.

Vuforia, the AR platform set up by hardware giant Qualcomm, has been sold to PTC for $65m, the company has revealed, with the deal set to be completed by the end of the year.

The deal will see PTC also acquire the extensive developer ecosystem that comes with Vuforia, which currently has support in over 130 countries around the world. Jay Wright, who headed up the Vuforia business for Qualcomm, will move across to PTC to lead the new business.

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Vuforia’s platform allows mobile apps to interact and connect with the world around them, providing immersive experiences for gaming and multimedia. So far, it has powered more than 20,000 apps with more than 200 million app installs worldwide.

PTC says it will now look to integrate Vuforia and PTC into its existing work with the Internet of Things (IoT) and AR as it aims to, “deliver a new class of products that merge the digital and physical worlds”. The company already has an established suite of IoT and analytics platforms, which Vuforia can assist with in creating new ways to design products, to monitor and control products, and to instruct operators and technicians in the appropriate methods of use and service.

“PTC continues to pursue a strategy of providing an incredibly innovative technology platform that customers can use to capitalise on the emerging Internet of Things (IoT),” said PTC CEO Jim Heppelmann.

“Because of what IoT is enabling, more and more products are now a mixture of digital and part physical content. So, naturally, the ways in which we interact with these products will evolve toward a mixed-reality model that blends physical and digital interactions.”

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