Google’s Raxium Acquisition Heats Up AR Race to the Delight of SaaS AR Platforms

Credit: Google.com

Google sealed its deal to acquire Raxium, a five-year-old startup based in Fremont, California that specializes in MicroLED displays. Announcing the acquisition on its blog post this week, Google’s Senior Vice President, Devices & Services, Rick Osterloh said that Raxium’s technical expertise in the field will play a key role as the company continues to invest in AR/VR hardware efforts.

The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed; however, the post stated that Raxium will be placed under Google’s devices and services department. Founded by Rick Dodd and Gordon Wetzstein, Raxium is on the cutting edge of pixel technology, developing powerful display products ranging from augmented reality and virtual reality headsets and wearables to life-size panel-based light field arrays. “The team at Raxium has spent five years creating miniaturized, cost-effective and energy-efficient high-resolution displays that have laid the foundation for future display technologies,” said Osterloh.

Reports of Google’s acquisition of Raxium first surfaced in March as reported by The Information. The tech giant was supposedly looking into acquiring the startup so it can gain more control over the key design and parts used for developing future AR/VR hardware.

According to Raxium’s website, it has deep expertise in “monolithic integration” for MicroLEDs. This technology allows them to manufacture MicroLED using the same kind of silicon material used for manufacturing most types of processors, which could help push manufacturing costs down significantly. It is also developing headsets for AR/VR that are “ultra-compact and low-power” and with “high resolution, efficiency, contrast, uniformity & frame-rate.”

Seamlessly Fused Physical and Digital Worlds

This is not Google’s first dive into the AR/VR world. It acquired glasses maker, North, back in 2020. With Raxium, it has just made a more definitive move that signals the race for AR dominance. Google is reportedly on the hunt for engineers who can take care of developing its AR operating system.

Meanwhile, this week also saw Meta’s roadmap for releasing four VR headsets—two models with high-resolution screens that make it easy for the eyes to read text. The Meta headsets will also feature full-color passthrough capabilities that can provide a seamless merging of the user’s physical and digital worlds.

Other big players like Microsoft and Apple already have their respective AR/VR projects. Microsoft launched the HoloLens AR device with real-world applications in manufacturing, healthcare, engineering and design, and education. Speculations about Apple developing mixed reality lenses have also been floating online since last year.

When it comes to using AR for enhanced in-app features, camera maker, Snap Inc., has also recently unveiled its new feature “Dress Up” which allows users to virtually try on items like eyeglasses or sneakers, or see how a sofa would match their living room space.

With all these exciting developments in AR and VR, we predict some good business days ahead for SaaS AR platforms. That’s because as AR/VR hardware improves and more businesses actually use the tools, the demand for powerful but easy-to-use SaaS AR platforms will also rise. This is the time for the DevOps teams and marketing teams of SaaS AR vendors to highlight the features of their apps and how these can help users create virtual/3D worlds effortlessly and with different use cases relevant to their business.