Apple has acquired the VR startup NextVR

Apple has made another acquisition in the virtual reality market, this time a startup who has already made a name for itself thanks to its innovative ways of using the technology.

Apple confirmed to Bloomberg today that it has officially acquired the VR startup NextVR. The first grumblings of this acquisition actually popped up back in April of this year, but now it has been confirmed by the company. However, the completion of the acquisition didn’t go through until recently, which is why it’s popping up again. According to the report, Apple spent upwards of $100 million for NextVR.

NextVR has built itself up relying on virtual reality to showcase things like sporting events, music concerts, and general entertainment experiences. As of right now the company’s website has been basically shutdown and replaced with a simple banner on the landing page. It’s a thank you message to the company’s “partners and fans” around the world. You can see it pictured at the top of this article.

Of course, for its part, Apple offered the standard statement on its acquisition:

Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.

NextVR is all about the experience, and, up until now, wasn’t an exclusive option for any specific VR headset. Fans could watch sporting events, like National Basketball Association (NBA) games in VR, using Facebook’s Oculus Quest headset, the PlayStation VR headset, VR headsets from HTC, Google, and others. The company had partnerships with the aforementioned NBA, the WWE, Wimbledon, and others.

Apple has been rumored to be working on both augmented reality and VR glasses/headsets for quite some time now. Just today, for instance, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the AR Apple Glasses could launch in 2022 at the earliest. And there have been other reports saying Apple’s VR headset could arrive in either 2022 or 2023.

This is probably a solid acquisition for Apple for its future plans, even if we are a couple of years away from seeing whatever this helps create.

Are you hoping to see a VR headset from Apple in the near future?