PTC Acquires Qualcomm Vuforia
In a press release on October 12, 2015, PTC, a global provider of platforms and solutions that permit companies to create, operate, and service connected objects, announced that it has acquired the Vuforia technology, and its developer ecosystem, from Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated.
The companies emphasized the potential for impact by drawing a direct line between Augmented Reality and visualization of Internet of Things data stored in and managed by PTC systems.
Developers using Vuforia have primarily been developing campaigns for brands, educational products and applications designed for entertainment so there will be significant effort needed to reshape their business models and skills to the needs of enterprise customers.
Jay Wright, VP of Vuforia, stated in the release “As part of PTC, Vuforia will allow developers to realize this potential through integration with PTC’s industry leading applications and ThingWorx IoT platform.” The statement does not address the matter of future support for popular third party systems that produce and consume data from connected products.