If you’ve been following MWC 2022 here at NextPit, you’ll have stumbled across the Metaverse multiple times. Today, at a closed press conference, Qualcomm announced a partnership with the company Lynx, which according to CEO Stan Larroque will shake up the life of Mark Zuckerberg!
Just like smartphones were the hype of the hour 15 years ago, virtual reality and augmented reality have been on the rise since Facebook’s Metaverse announcement. And despite all the hype surrounding Meta’s brave new world, the market is full of alternatives that compete more with StudiVZ than Facebook in terms of popularity.
One such company is (still!) Lynx, Qualcomm’s partner in building an ecosystem of mixed reality devices. Larroque is on the verge of launching the next generation of Lynx R1 headsets – and at this afternoon’s Qualcomm roundtable, he was applauded by journalists for saying he was ready to compete for a place in the Metaverse:
We’re a very dedicated team and we’ll be gaining a lot of ground in the coming months.
The Lynx R1 headsets are developed in cooperation with Qualcomm. / © Lynx
Additionally, Larroque believes Lynx has a head start on Facebook in the VR market. Because while Zuckerberg only offers a virtual reality solution, Lynx has a mixed reality headset. In addition to the virtual reality, the “real” reality remains as a layer to offer people an even more immersive experience.
This will have an impact in the B2C world and in the B2B world faster than you can imagine. Because in the future, VR will be a subset of mixed reality. Today we have the Quest which is an amazing product that has a lot of volume but it’s only VR. And these types of headsets will bring AR to the table, and with it a ton of use cases, as well as new ways of interacting with virtual reality.
The Lynx R1 is an exciting alternative to Meta’s Oculus. / © Lynx
At the end of the event, I was able to chat with Larroque and asked him what motivated him to compete with Facebook.
The market demands it. We get a lot of emails every day from companies that have an application on a Facebook headset and want to move to Lynx. So we know there is a dynamic in the market that sees a problem with the Facebook VR monopoly and my company as well as many others are trying to push for other headsets.
Lynx is a French company that has been active in the VR and AR equipment market for two years, offering equipment for all types of applications, from gaming and entertainment to professional training and education. According to the company’s website, the team consists of 15 people from diverse backgrounds, from designers to electronics engineers and more. And they all share the same passion for AR and VR.
Stay tuned to NextPit because later this week I’ll be releasing the full interview with Lynx’s CEO. How do you see the Metaverse and the need for more female players in the virtual universe?