Hi Everyone,

Big things happening in mixed reality (MR)!

Today Meta announced its new Quest 3 VR headset. Smaller, lighter, and more powerful in every way. Coming out this fall. See the product launch trailer here. 

On June 5 Apple is expected to announce its long awaited MR product, the Apple Reality Pro, at WWDC 2023, ending years of speculation about Apple's entry into the immersive mobile market. See Apple's Reality Pro: What we know ahead of WWDC 2023 for details. 

A battle between these two titans for immersive mobile market share can only benefit VirZOOM. No matter who comes out on top, competition means more platforms for VirZOOM content. As an MR content developer we win either way. 

Stay tuned for Apple's announcement next week. 

Hi Everyone,

If you missed the big news in our recent update, we have been awarded a significant grant by a major VR company. Our campaign page has just been revised to show that. 

This has big implications for your investment. 

Campaign before and after

We originally launched the campaign to raise funds to finance 100% of the cost of development and marketing of our 4th generation VR Exercise Game product. The product will employ our new tech that lets us create exercise games for a consumer audience more than 10x larger than we could before.

The recently awarded a content production grant covers approximately 80% of development costs. As for marketing, the company supplying the grant will promote the at product launch. Funds raised from this campaign going forward will be used to finance the balance of operating expenses not covered by the grant or by revenue from sales. 

What it means

This grant improves the campaign offering in three key ways:

• The grant significantly reduces our need for funds to finance product development, marketing, and company operations. 
• Grant funding made it possible for us to begin work on our 4th generation product in April, rather than having to wait for funds obtained from this campaign.
• The product is scheduled to launch later this year for 2023 revenue rather than sometime next year as previously planned. That can further reduce outside funding requirements.

Confidentiality

We cannot disclose the source of the grant nor provide details about the product, but we can and will update you on our progress. We'll post an update after each grant milestone has been completed. We have completed the first two so far. 

Stay tuned!

When the product launches later this year as planned, product details and the source of the grant will then be revealed. 

Stay tuned for more updates and thank you for investing in our now even more exciting project! 

Figure 6 from our Virtual Reality Exercise Game patent

Hi Everyone,

I’m pleased to announce that the European Patent Office (EPO) notified us today that our core Virtual Reality Exercise Game patent application has been granted as a European Patent.

The U.S. patent was granted in 2019. This EU grant extends patent protection of our intellectual property to the second largest market for VR outside the U.S. 

This patented tech differentiates VirZOOM’s VR products by making it possible for us to create VR apps and games in which players can move themselves continuously and accurately through virtual worlds with minimal locomotion discomfort. Using this tech we can create VR games of various types, such as racing and arena battle games, that play more like real world sports.

This LinkedIn article explains the advantages in simple terms: The Metaverse Moves Forward: VirZOOM’s New VR Motion Controls

Special recognition for this milestone goes to my Co-Founder & CTO Eric Malafeew for this amazing invention and for getting the patent grant process over the line in Europe.   

Hey Everyone,

Today I’d like to talk about demographics, specifically the age of our customers. 

Here are the VZfit age demographic numbers:

• 16-24 years old: 13%

• 25-34 years old: 21%

• 35-44 years old: 30%

• 45-54 years old: 19%

• 55-64 years old: 11%

• 65+ years old: 6%

How does this compare to VR users overall?

• 16-24 years old: 34%

• 25-34 years old: 35%

• 35-44 years old: 26%

• 45-54 years old: 12%

• 55-64 years old: 6%

• 65+ years old: 2%

The data show that VZfit users tend to be older than VR users overall. 

Here’s the interesting part. This is the percentage of VZfit users per age group as compared to VR overall:

• 16-24 years old: 38%

• 25-34 years old: 59%

• 35-44 years old: 117%

• 45-54 years old: 160%

• 55-64 years old: 187%

• 65+ years old: 320%

Compared to VR users generally, VZfit is used by less than half the number of 16-44 year olds and more than three times as many 65+ year olds.

Surprised? There’s a reason for this. VZfit…

1. Gives older users a way to explore the world without the hassle of traveling.

2. Lets formerly athletic users who still want to work out do so at their own pace.

3. Provides a unique exercise experience that meets a need that no real world form of exercise can.

Consider these VZfit reviews from older users, a sample of three out of 321 5-star reviews:

Incentive to exercise

At 84, my doctor has recommended that I do 45 minutes of vigorous exercise every day. VZfit solves the problem of a tedious imposition and turns it into an enjoyment. In fact, I look forward to the stationary bike ride every day.

For me, this is the best VR exercise application that fulfills my requirement.

Normally I do not care for subscription based apps, but this one is worth paying for. VzFit support is excellent with very fast response and the product is updated regularly with additions such as the monthly challenges.

Makes Exercise Fun

At 82 years old exercise can be lifesaving but also a task. VzFit has taken a daily, boring, 45 minutes on an Elliptical machine to a fun ride in various parts of the world.

No, it’s not technically perfect but the variety and beauty/interest of seeing actual scenery and cityscapes around the world is amazing.

I love the commented rides and have enjoyed many of the ingenious improvements made to the app over time. The associated games provide additional amusement although at my age competitive activities are mostly beyond me.

Overall, VZfit is a wonderful addition to my world and I hope they continue as a successful part of the VR world.

WOW LOVE VZ FIT

I am 69 and need to exercise for health. I always wanted to travel the world and could never do so. Now I can and want to exercise and go most anywhere on the globe I want to! LOVE LOVE ❤️

I'm a 62 year old living in VR via VZfit

What an awesome product, I can't express how I feel and how this app helps me. It allows me to cycle 2 hours of every day in the country of my choice, across this huge world of ours. I wake up wondering what I'll see next and what I'll experience on my daily adventures. I'm taking full advantage of this 21st century tech; in 2022 I cycled the long way round Iceland (2.5k). So far in 2023 I've cycled the long way round New Zealand, both islands South (2.6k) & North (3.1k). And now I'm cycling West along the great ocean road of Australia. Wow, amazing! Where to next?...where will you choose to go?

Loving This Ap into my 2nd Year

I am 68 years old and retired, but still active.

Six days a week with a headset with my own music, and a Quest 2 with VZfit, riding routes in cities that they provide, and routes that I have created, like my hometown that I haven't been back to in years.

VZPlay is TOTAL immersion, but in more of a CGI cartoon world,

VZfit uses Google Maps and you see the actual street and buildings that were there on its last Google Maps update.

I am in my second year with a VZfit subscription simply because morning exercises on an elliptical or indoor bike are kept enjoyable because of it.

The Customer Service is also an excellent added bonus.

As much as we love our older demographic, in order to expand the business we need to appeal to more of the 70% of VR users who are in the 16-34 age bracket. The new app we are creating cooperatively with a grant from a major VR player is designed to do just that. However, we don’t plan to leave our older players behind. 

How will we do that? Stay tuned! All shall be revealed in time. 

--

These testimonials may not be representative of the experience of other customers and is not a guarantee of future performance or success.

VZfit enjoys an overall 4 out of 5-Stars Meta Quest Store rating. The breakdown as of May 10, 2023:

                  # Reviews    % of Reviews

5-Stars    321                63%

4-Stars    62                  12%

3-Stars    35                  7%

2-Stars    34                   7%

1-Stars    54                  11%

Here's the team that's hard at work on the exciting new, grant funded, cooperative development project mentioned in previous updates. The team has already made the first two milestones. Help us make our $200k milestone and invest today!

VZfit Google Street View image from Lake Titicaca, Peru

Hi Everyone! 

Have you stopped by to see our Facebook VZfit community yet? 

Over the years this community has grown from a few dozen members to over 3,000. 

There’s something really special about this community, as you’ll see. The atmosphere is friendly and cooperative. Members help each other out and help us quite a bit, too. They report and describe product issues that let us constantly refine and improve VZfit. A subset of members make up our beta test group, where new releases are tried and tested. 

More than anything it’s a place where members share their excitement about a new place they’ve discovered on a ride they’ve taken. 

VZfit offers hundreds of recommended rides curated by the VirZOOM team and over 4,000 rides created by VZfit users from over 10 million miles of roads mapped by Google Street View. 

Here’s how it works. You’re wearing your Meta Quest headset. If you’re on a stationary bike, you're pedaling your way through a 3D Street View scene.  If you're standing and using the headset alone, you move yourself along the road with body movements. You stop along the way to take a picture of a scene that catches your eye. Then you can share those images to your personal Facebook page or to the VZfit group. 

This integration of Street View images with Facebook is a unique feature of VZfit that takes full advantage of the power of both VR and social media to bring people together to share experiences.  

Here are a few recent samples.

Ride around the Austrian Lakes 

Transylvania, Romania

Cambridge, Massachusetts

You can capture and share video, too.

VZfit gives you a work out while exploring the world. The integration with Facebook lets our thousands of VZfit users share their experiences. Members also use the community page to arrange to meet up to ride together; up to five can ride and chat on any ride. 

Big time credit for cultivating this lively and fun community goes to our COO Rob Collins, who among his many roles acts as our Community Manager.

I encourage you to swing by our Facebook VZfit community and see the VZfit community in action. 

(Image credit: Marcus Kane/Sketchfab)

In our May 3rd update we announced that we’d received a content development grant from a major VR industry player. For confidentiality reasons we can’t reveal who that player is, but we can review who all the players are to give you a clear picture of the industry landscape. 

VirZOOM was founded in 2015. We launched our first VR Exercise Game products in June 2016 and we’ve partnered with several of the major VR players since then. 

Our first VR games were distributed through the Steam game store for PC-based VR platforms Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Later we also distributed our VR games through the Sony Playstation store for the Playstation VR (PSVR) headset. After that we shipped on the Microsoft Windows Mixed Reality (MR) headset, and sold a turnkey solution into commercial health clubs in partnership with Life Fitness, Samsung, Acer, and Intel. 

We engaged with Google for a special project in 2017 that’s been on pause ever since, awaiting a number of developments that need to happen in the evolution of VR tech before we can dust that off and bring it to market. In late 2018 we added the Oculus Go to our repertoire of VR platforms, followed by the Oculus Quest in early 2019. 

Today two other major VR players compete with Meta Quest, including Taiwan-based HTC and China-based Pico. Pico is owned by ByteDance, the giant Chinese company that also owns TikTok. HTC’s Elite XR is similar to, albeit smaller and lighter, than the Meta Quest Pro, while the Pico 4 is similar to the Meta Quest 2. 

The VR industry wildcard is Apple. Apple has been developing a product with both Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) capabilities for nine years. The Apple VR/AR headset is now expected to make its debut at WWDC 2023 in June. The product name is rumored to be Apple Reality Pro. The price is not known, but estimates put the initial price in the $3,000 range. 

This recent article shows a rendering of the Apple Reality Pro. While some critics dislike the fact that the headset is tethered to an external battery, in my opinion this design addresses two of the largest VR product adoption barriers that face the industry today. One, consumers do not like the way a large goggles-like headset makes them look when it’s hanging off their face. Two, consumers don’t appreciate the strain of wearing a heavy headset; by removing the heaviest part of a headset, the battery, Apple is able to address both of these problems and make a headset that is both attractive and lightweight.

The Apple Reality Pro is rumored to work without hand controllers. If true, that will address the third most significant adoption barrier: consumers are turned off by the inconvenience of having to learn how to use not one but two hand controllers that are modeled on video game controllers, with an assortment of buttons, triggers, and joysticks to control menus and game play. Eliminate the controllers and that inconvenience goes away. 

With respect to performance, Apple Reality Pro software will run on Apple’s custom M3 chipset. The M3 has far more processing power than the Qualcomm XR2 chipset that the other VR industry players use. All that power can be used to deliver everything from hand controller-less operation to higher frame rates for a more immersive experience. 

As a content developer, the most exciting new development that Apple can potentially bring to the VR industry is scale. While all of the other VR players need to build a brand from scratch to attract customers from the general population of consumers, Apple can sell its new MR product into an installed base of 1.5 billion active iPhone users. 

With the advantage of being the world’s premier consumer electronics brand and nine years of development work, Apple is poised to quickly take its place among the major VR industry players. If the $3,000 initial sticker price turns out to be accurate, that won’t happen overnight. However, if the Pro follows the evolutionary path of the iPhone, Apple may dominate the market within a couple of years. 

In July 2007, barely 9 million Americans owned a smartphone – representing just 4 percent of the entire mobile market. Today (in 2012) nearly 110 million Americans own a smartphone and by the end of the year smartphone owners will become the new mobile majority in the U.S.

- 5 Years Later: A Look Back at the Rise of the iPhone

With an Apple Reality Pro announcement expected in June, we won’t have long to wait to find out.  

Eric Janszen

Co-Founder & CEO

VirZOOM, Inc.

I’m excited to announce the addition of Bhavin Patel to the team. As Director of Design for VirZOOM, Bhavin brings more than 20 years of Art, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Director Level Project Management & Leadership to our latest product development project.  

Bhavin has worked with members of our management team in the past and is well known for his strong abilities. He joined us in early April and has already made major contributions to the project. We’re thrilled to have him aboard. 

You can learn more about Bhavin from his LinkedIn profile here

Great news! VirZOOM has been awarded $375,000 in grant funding from a major VR industry player to help finance the development of our next generation product. 

The funding is non-dilutive, which means no shares are sold in connection with the grant.

This collaborative grant project is underway, giving us the opportunity to expand the resources we need to accelerate our product development plans. 

The grant is specifically for a collaborative development project and is not an equity investment in the company to finance operating expenses. To fully finance the business plan, including product development and marketing, we have extended our campaign from April 30 to July 23 or until the maximum is raised, whichever comes first. 

Thank you for the support that got us to this exciting milestone in VirZOOM’s journey. 

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Hello! Recently, a change was made to the VirZoom offering. Here's an excerpt describing the specifics of the change:

VirZoom is extending their campaign end date and updating their financials

When live offerings undergo changes like these on StartEngine, the SEC requires that certain investments be reconfirmed. If your investment requires reconfirmation, you will be contacted by StartEngine via email with further instructions.