W|W: The Wearable Weekly – Is Google Ramping up AR and VR production?

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

Global market for smart AR glasses will grow from 150,000 unit shipments in 2016, to 22.8 million units annually by 2022 (Tractica)

Funding, acquisitions & M&A

Simplifeye raises $3 million (TechCrunch)

Verizon Ventures and R/GA partner to launch a digital media ‘venture studio’ (TechCrunch)

Device announcements

Google and Levi’s connected jacket gets a release date and pricing (Wareable)

TAG Heuer teases March 14 launch of its next smartwatch (9to5 Google)

Kerv ring that enables purchases now available in the UK (Mashable)

Movado partners with Google to launch a new smartwatch collection (PR Newswire)

Avegant unveils a new headset featuring light field tech (The Verge)

Xiaomi smart running shoes available in China in April (Wareable)

Deloitte developing wearable tech for mining (Forbes)

Major milestones

HTC will open full body tracking to developers (UploadVR)

Facebook launches Facebook 360 app (CNET)

CNN launches global VR journalism unit (The Verge)

Fossil Android Wear 2.0 landing in March (Wareable)

Apple releases watchOS 3.2 beta 5 for Apple Watch (9to5 Mac)

Trimble and DAQRI Collaborate on the integration of Trimble’s mixed reality solutions (Yahoo Finance)

Bandai Namco will be opening a new ‘VR Zone’ in Tokyo this summer (Forbes)

Rumours

Google job listings point to new “mass production” AR/VR hardware in the pipeline (MobileSyrup)

Subscribe to The Wearable Weekly

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Wearable Weekly using the form below to make sure it hits your email inbox every week!