The Digital World Has Touch: Immersion's Haptic Technology Reaches Milestone of 3 Billion Devices

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Immersion Corporation IMMR, the leading developer and licensor of touch feedback technology, today announced that the company has reached a significant milestone in the adoption of its haptic technology. Immersion has achieved critical mass of more than 3 billion devices enabled with its technology – tablets, smartphones, wearables, gaming controllers and automotive interfaces. This inflection point for the company solidifies touch as a part of the digital world and provides a platform for the development of richer tactile experiences.

"As humans, we crave the sense of touch. Digital devices are evolving to be a greater part of our everyday lives, and with haptics, we can inject emotion and meaning into those digital experiences," said Victor Viegas, chief executive officer at Immersion. "More than 3 billion devices are enabled with Immersion's haptics. We are embarking into a new era where haptic technology will enable the digital world to feel true to the physical world. Immersion is dedicated to bringing this experience to consumers."

The digital world is continuing to evolve. "Gartner, Inc. forecasts that 4.9 billion connected things will be in use in 2015, up 30 percent from 2014, and will reach 25 billion by 2020¹."

Digital technology is fueling the development of more immersive entertainment and enabling people to virtually connect with each other across greater distances and physical barriers.

"We believe that three key market trends will drive the continued growth of haptics across the digital world," said Viegas. "The need for deeper, more personal, more emotional connections through digital communications; the desire for immersive entertainment; and the need to manage our rapidly expanding world of connected devices. Haptic technology lets us tap into our emotions, immerses us in our environment and provides a distinct channel to pass along information to users. Haptics will propel us into this next stage of humanizing the digital world."

With more than 20 years of experience and 1,900 patents in the field of haptics, Immersion is the leader in the world of touch technology. The company partners with developers and manufacturers to create high-quality tactile experiences felt by hundreds of millions of people around the world every day. Within the last few years, Immersion has grown its relationship with device makers and partners in numerous markets. Its successes include:

• License agreements with top mobile device manufacturers including Samsung, LG, Xiaomi, Huawei, Motorola, Meizu, Fujitsu and HTC to add depth and dimension to the mobile experience.
• Development with popular mobile game developers worldwide to infuse games with new, sensory experiences powered by Immersion technology. Gamers have responded enthusiastically, downloading a cumulative total of more than 230 million Android mobile games with Immersion's haptics.
• Growing adoption of TouchSense® Engage for mobile video, a new video content capability that enables creators to artfully enhance content with tactile effects, and the roll out of the first-ever haptically enabled video trailer.
• Development of a new Instinctive Alerts Framework, a groundbreaking approach to tactile notifications designed to take advantage of the unique communications capabilities of wearable devices. This scalable solution helps manufacturers design a wearable device that effectively and privately communicates to users through tactile effects, without requiring any additional audio or visual context.

Immersion's technology gives device manufacturers and content creators freedom to differentiate offerings through a greater sense of realism, confirmation and rich communications capabilities. Immersion offers TouchSense® Core for Mobile and Wearables, to enable manufacturers to build high quality tactile experiences across mobile and wearable devices. TouchSense® Engage helps content creators and mobile game developers integrate compelling tactile effects to enhance mobile content such as video, chat, ads and games.

About Immersion (www.immersion.com)

Founded in 1993, Immersion IMMR is the leading innovator in haptic technology. The company's touch feedback solutions deliver a more compelling sense of the digital world. Using Immersion's high-fidelity haptic systems, partners can transform user experiences with unique and customizable touch feedback effects; excite the senses in games and videos; restore "mechanical" feel by providing intuitive and unmistakable confirmation; may improve safety by reducing distractions while driving; provide realistic touch feedback when performing robotic medical procedures and training simulations; and expand usability when audio and visual feedback are ineffective. Immersion's TouchSense technology provides haptics in mobile phone, automotive, gaming, medical, and consumer electronics products from world-class companies. With over 1,900 issued or pending patents in the U.S., China and other countries, Immersion helps bring the digital universe to life. Learn more at www.immersion.com or www.touchsense.com.

¹Gartner. Gartner Says 4.9 Billion Connected "Things" Will Be in Use in 2015, Nov 2014, http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2905717

Disclaimer:

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of Immersion Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

All statements, other than the statements of historical fact, are statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the belief that Immersion has reached critical mass by enabling more than 3 billion devices, the belief that such milestone is an inflection point that solidifies touch as a part of the digital world, the expectation that 25 billion things will be online by 2020, our belief regarding three key market trends that will drive continued growth of haptics, and the statement that haptics will propel us into this next stage of humanizing the digital world.

Immersion's actual results might differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties associated with Immersion's business, which include, but are not limited to: unanticipated difficulties and challenges encountered in product development efforts by Immersion and its licensees; unanticipated difficulties and challenges encountered in implementation efforts by Immersion's licensees; adverse outcomes in any future intellectual property-related litigation and the costs related thereto; the effects of the current macroeconomic climate; delay in or failure to achieve commercial demand for Immersion's products or third party products incorporating Immersion's technologies; and a delay in or failure to achieve the acceptance of touch feedback as a critical user experience. Many of these risks and uncertainties are beyond the control of Immersion.

For a more detailed discussion of these factors, and other factors that could cause actual results to vary materially, interested parties should review the risk factors listed in Immersion's most current Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, both of which are on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements in this press release reflect Immersion's beliefs and predictions as of the date of this release. Immersion disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements as a result of financial, business, or any other developments occurring after the date of this release.

Immersion, the Immersion logo and TouchSense are trademarks of Immersion Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The use of the word "partner" or "partnership" in this press release does not mean a legal partner or legal partnership.

(IMMR - C)

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