October 2026 #XR in a #nutshell
If you thought October was just the month of pumpkins and spiced drinks, think again: the world of augmented reality has decided to give us a much more chilling experience. Between glasses that try to read your mind, pioneers selling off their family jewels, and professional associations closing their doors while proclaiming victory, the spectacle this month has been surprising.
- The XR Association plans to stop operations at the end of 2026.
- Schneider Electric acquired PTC for 22.6 billion dollars.
- Sony exited virtual reality by selling 460 patents to Meta.
- Meta introduced office-focused glasses with hand tracking, while companies are adopting immersive supervisor roles to oversee hardware and software integration.
- Privacy concerns led retailer Hans Anders to suspend Ray Ban Meta sales in the Netherlands and Belgium.
- Snap hired Robert Downey Jr in a 100 million dollar deal.
- Google patented Gemini AI features to blur sensitive visual data automatically.
- MicroLED display costs are shifting optical investments toward data centers and Chinese silicon carbide manufacturing.
- Defense acquisitions accelerated as Varjo moved XR4 production to Finland for government clients.
- Kopin secured an 18.9 million dollar US military contract.
- OpenXR launched Spatial Containers to enable simultaneous multitasking across Android XR devices.
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Future events
- DescubreXR – November 26 – Valencia
- IMMERSIVE X 2026 – THE GLOBAL XR FESTIVAL IN VR – November 10-12, 2026 – Online
- MatchXR – Metaverse Finland Event – November 12, 2026 – Helsinki
- Virtual Worlds Partnership (VWP) Annual Forum 2026 – November 2, 2026 – Valencia
- EuroXR 2026 – November 3rd to 6th – Valencia
- Paris XR #22: Dinner and AI/AR Glasses and discussion – November 18 – Paris
- nextReality.festival – November 18 – 19 – Hamburg
- SPECS Hack: Brussels ’26 – December 10 / 11 – Brussels
- United XR Europe – 7 – 9 December – Brussels
- Laval Virtual 2026 – April 7-9, 2027 – Laval, France
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