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Over the past ten years of AR’s relatively short commercial history, one major component has been largely missing: a retail presence. Sure, there’s been some Meta dabblings in big box stores, as well as the sometimes slow and low first-party retail efforts of Meta and Apple.
This is an odd phenomenon if you think about it, given that XR technology is something that has to be tried in order to really appreciate its immersive and interactive UX. In most of the technology’s marketing and distribution channels, the challenge has been to “sell TVs on the radio.”
Display-glasses leader VITURE today made a sizable move to counteract this trend. The company announced that it will now have a retail presence at 200 Best Buy stores across the U.S.. This will include a dedicated demo area in each store, where shoppers can try and buy on the spot.
“Customers have been asking for an in-person way to try our glasses for years.” VITURE cofounder and CMO Emily Wang said. “By showcasing at Best Buy, one of the most popular electronics retailers, we’re making extended reality as approachable as any other consumer technology.”
Something Good to Show
As for specifics of the Best Buy in-store experience, VITURE will get its own demo area where users can experience its devices in action. This follows VITURE’s online sales at Best Buy, and its physical-store installations at Micro Center, B&H Photo Video, and Costco Canada.
At launch, the Best Buy presence will feature the $499 VITURE Luma Pro, and its accessories. These include the Mobile Dock for additional power and connections (including native Nintendo Switch compatibility), as well as the Pro Neckband, gaming controller, and charging adapter.
Besides the general need for XR devices to show rather than tell, as examined above, this is particularly important for high-spec’d devices that have something good to show. That’s the case for VITURE’s display glasses, including impressive display brightness and clarity.
As we examined in our Luma Pro review, its Sony micro-OLED displays offer a vibrant and high-contrast viewing experience. In fact, it’s probably the most cost-efficient way to experience OLED in all its high-contrast glory. OLED TVs otherwise cost several thousands of dollars.
Big-Screen Awe
Backing up, VITURE is a quickly-emerging leader of a quickly-emerging XR device category: screen-mirroring display glasses. These mirror existing and ubiquitous devices, thereby giving you a near-eye display that projects massive virtual private screens for existing 2D media.
The key term above is existing. VITURE piggybacks on an established ecosystem of devices and content. Sidestepping the chicken & egg dilemma of other XR-native ecosystems (e.g., VR), VITURE’s hardware is ready to display vast content libraries and streaming apps.
But the term “piggybacking” isn’t meant to diminish VITURE. Its UX is meaningfully additive in brightness, clarity, and big-screen awe. As examined in our review, it’s natural for travelling, watching movies in bed, and other use cases. Now, consumers will get to taste that at scale.
“We were honored to be the first display glasses brands to go live on BestBuy.com last year,” said Wang. “And now, as we expand into offline retail, we’re bringing our vision of accessible XR even closer to reality.”
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