W|W: The Wearable Weekly – Wearables aren’t dead but Fitbit risks losing its lead

Welcome to The Wearable Weekly, your trusted guide to all things wearable tech. If you only have time to read one thing about wearables this week, this is it.

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Statistics & forecasts

IDC report shows a 16.9 percent increase year-over-year in wearables, bringing the total number to 33.9 million units shipped globally for Q4, up from 29 million last year (MobileSyrup)

Fitbit YoY growth is -27 percent while Apple is up 13 percent, says IDC (BusinessWire)

Google has shipped 10 million Cardboard VR viewers, 160 million Cardboard app downloads (TechCrunch)

Fifty-nine percent of VR Developers use Unity (UploadVR)

Smart augmented reality glasses shipments reach 22.8 million units annually by 2022, according to Tractica (BusinessWire)

Image recognition expected to generate $40 billion by 2021 (Next Reality)

Funding, Acquisitions & M&A

Nearpod, a pioneer of VR in edtech, raises $21 million (Xconomy)

Snap goes IPO (TechCrunch)

Device announcements

LG unveils VR headset reference design at GDC (The Verge)

Fitbit announces the Alta HR (MobileSyrup)

PlayStation VR’s ‘Aim’ gun controller is coming in May (MobileSyrup)

Microsoft starts shipping Windows 10 mixed reality developer kits this month (TechCrunch)

Microsoft to bring mixed reality to Xbox One later this year (USA Today)

Major milestones

Google Daydream support coming to Unity on March 31 (UploadVR)

Waterloo-based VR arcade expanding to over 10 locations (MobileSyrup)

Rumours

Apple patent suggests Apple may use next-gen fabrics for future gadget housings (Patently Apple)

Google patent suggests a connected hat project (Mashable)

Apple may have more than 1,000 engineers working on augmented reality for the iPhone, UBS says (CNBC)

This story originally appeared on BetaKit.