Augmented-Reality Startup Magic Leap Reportedly Considering Selling Itself

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: Magic Leap, a mysterious maker of augmented reality glasses, is reportedly considering strategic options that include selling itself. The startup is working with an advisor to explore options such as forming a partnership or selling a stake in the company ahead of a potential listing, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing unidentified sources. Founded in 2011, Google-funded Magic Leap has spent $2.3 billion creating its AR glasses, and after years of skepticism that the startup might be building the world's best funded vaporware, it finally released its headset in the fall of 2018. The Magic Leap One glasses, which launched with a hefty price tag of $2,295, feature displays, audio and external camera sensors. However, the company reportedly sold just 6,000 virtual reality headsets in the six months after launching the product -- far behind CEO Rony Abovitz's goal of selling 100,000 Magic Leap One devices in that period.

So still not ready

[AxisOfPleasure]

So the same old story again, "VR still not ready for Joe Public and the primetime".

Sorry but we've been promised VR since we first started getting home computers 40 years ago, apart from the graphics getting better it's still a niche market for enthusiasts. It's more or less going the way of 3D TV and it'll go back it's coffin for another 10-15 years until it can fully match our expectations.

Re:So still not ready

[WaffleMonster]

Sorry but we've been promised VR since we first started getting home computers 40 years ago, apart from the graphics getting better it's still a niche market for enthusiasts. It's more or less going the way of 3D TV and it'll go back it's coffin for another 10-15 years until it can fully match our expectations.

The VR market is growing substantially.

--
I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship.

Re:

[Moof123]

If I sold one last year, and ten this year I could claim 1000% growth! Or I could admit I only sold ten.

VR might still be growing, but it is also still very, very niche in its overall adoption rate.

It's a lot further and better now..

[gl4ss]

VR market is a lot better than in say 1996.

You can actually get software for it and there's an ecosystem working around it and all that.

now. none of that makes magic leap any better. it's not amazing, there's no amazing uses for it out of the box. hence it is not selling very much.

There have been niche AR glasses ever since basically 2004 or so for industry etc use. magic leap just didn't actually have valuable technology/inventions to add for the vr stuff out there... also people don't actually want to work by waving their hands in the air it's fucking tiring in the long run.

Re:

[Actually, I do RTFA]

It's the cost. I;m not going to spend $2,400 on a machine to develop an application for a market of 1,000 people. If it was $500, and I had a need for me personally, maybe I would buy it and put the code out there. But the per-unit cost is just prohibitive.

Re:

[buravirgil]

...also people don't actually want to work by waving their hands in the air it's fucking tiring in the long run.

It's a small thread and I think everyone's gone to bed...but the fact that so many posters have expended the energy and attention to distinguish AR from VR to a readership that knows those distinctions and were compelled to emphasize for how long an entity not only failed to deliver its first game changing interface, but persisted in a strategy of "What's behind the curtain?" only to enter the VR market more than a decade late.

Grrrr... But I think it indicates a profound suspicion, even expectation, about

Re:

[JaredOfEuropa]

Different story: this is about AR, not VR. And given the number of sets sold, I’d say that VR has entered the mainstream, which is no surprise as the technology has finally gotten to a point where VR is practical and affordable. And it looks like VR might stick around this time. AR is not the same. Different tech and very different applications. In short: VR is immersive, an escape. AR is an overlay on your everyday life.

And then there’s Magic Leap, whose failure can’t even really be att

Re:

[OneHundredAndTen]

the technology has finally gotten to a point where VR is practical and affordable.

Affordable, to whom? Are the masses going to fork over more than $2,000 on something that you play with a couple of times before it becomes old and tired? The market has answered that with an emphatic "No".

Practical? Maybe - in some very specific niches.

In essence this remains where it has been for the last 25 years: something that sounds cool and exciting, but the reality of which still is underwhelming and expensive.

Re:

[Pascoea]

$2,000? Where'd you come up with that number? I can go get a VR headset, the accessories for it, and 2 games for a ps4 at BestBuy right now for $350.

Re:

[RespekMyAthorati]

their early dog & pony shows with which the reeled in the first VCs.

Who apparently couldn't tell the difference between
breakthrough technology and a bit of canned CG.

Re:

[phantomfive]

It's the wrong time to sell companies right now, no one has the cash.

If they had tried in December it might have gone well.

Re:

[Actually, I do RTFA]

No one (read they don't) has cash is why they need to sell. They were happy to stay private when they thought they could keep growing./p?

Re: So still not ready

[mSparks43]

give xplane11, gran turismo or beat saber a try.
VR now has triple aaa titles.
This years most exciting release is VR only (half life alyx)

Only people not ready is microsoft, who are held back by their inability to release bug free software. Linux and Sony are the front runners.

Re: So still not ready

[mSparks43]

magic leap failed. Valve are already on gen 3, Sony about to launch their competitor.
Beat saber is selling more copies than the vast majority of non VR titles - and every single microsoft game.

How the hell are you defining failed?

Great product, too $$$ and too many buzzwords

[thesjaakspoiler]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

We don't talk about pixels or resolution, your retina is the screen. *ROFLMAO

Million Dollar Idea(s)

[SuperKendall]

VR googles with full built in N95 breathing mask.

Being goggles also, they would have a much better seal across the whole face. People are already paying a lot for N95 masks, so why not buy VR googles for just a bit more?

If you were really smart, you would have cameras on the outside so you could see a real world view through your full VR mask as you walked.

Also could embed tingle sensors to make you feel sensations from games on your face!

Feel free to steal any of these ideas, though I would like a free sa

Called it

[saccade.com]

I wrote about how Magic Leap was going to fail a couple years ago. Even got the timing pretty close: https://medium.com/@isonno/mag... [medium.com]

Two Different Products

[Jarwulf]

From what I've heard the tech that got Magic Leap started and the one they are trying to sell now are almost completely different. The thing that got investors hooked was this superadvanced setup that shined 3d images into your retina and was completely mindblowing. However it was limited and bulky, you couldn't really move with it, and it was extremely expensive so the original idea was to find a way to make it commercial feasible but this ended up failing so they had to whip up this rinky dink underwhelming device that they're embarrassed to show .

Re:

[stephanruby]

I'll start the bid at $5.

$5 for the entire company.

Going once. Going twice. Goin...

Re:

[rldp]

Sounds like a pretty common tune you hear from "Silicon Valley Disruptors".

Like a Kickstarter scams, but on a higher level.

Almost like Theranos, but not involving anyones health care

Mascots, pets

[spinitch]

Is there a market for unnecessary Execs as mascots or pets ? Will they prance around in a costume promoting propaganda?

Re:

[AmazingRuss]

If you throw an 8ball at them, they'll do tricks!

Some technologies are always better on paper

[OpenSourced]

VR powerfully reminds me of video-phones. Every four years, some (different) company would launch a videophone. Of course the last one had failed, but now the technology was mature enough. Guess what, now everybody has a videophone in their pockets, free, and the video part is not particularly used.

Sometimes, when a technology keeps being launched, you have to recognize that demand is simply not there, people are not really that interested in it.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

I'm very interested in AR but until I can get it in an affordable contact lens as an eyetap it's really not useful to me. The video phone was clearly something people wanted but it had to be cheap and ubiquitous in order to be successful.

No impressed

[jandoe]

I've seen presentation by 'chief game wizard' of Magic Leap some years ago. He was talking about some internal competition they organized for the best possible use for this technology. The goal was to come up with ideas for apps everyone will use everyday. The winner? Some AR game with cats and lasers. Yeah... after that I knew this will be a flop.

Re: No impressed

[paul_engr]

That long haired beardo Graeme Devine is a dumbass. They so blew it at doing anything worth bothering in the demos. Like seriously with a billion plus dollars, you couldn't con some teenagers to code something cool after giving them a demo kit and $500?

Magic Leap, a mysterious maker

[bsdetector101]

Magic Leap, a mysterious maker of augmented reality glasses, ugh Founded in 2011, Google-funded Magic Leap who writes this crap hefty price tag of $2,295. they wonder why it's not selling

WE're for sale!!!!!!!!

[Dunbal]

Usually when you have something interesting/useful - the buyers come to you with suitcases full of cash. If you have to advertise that you're selling your company everyone knows that basically you're trying to sell a dog turd.

diffraction limits and high res microdisplays

[sonoronos]

Magic Leap's product was basically an HMD with a near-eye light-field display.

The whole selling point of the near-eye light field display was:

1. Providing the effect of multiple planes of focus (letting your eye focus on near or far objects, and letting defocus occur as you would naturally expect) by approximating defocus using reduced resolution through off-angle projection. This was done automatically as the human eye/ brain basically performs the reconstruction as it focuses.

2. Solving accommodation - co

Re:

[sonoronos]

correction..."you can't make the ultra-high resolution display arbitrarily large."

So you're telling me...

[paul_engr]

...that overpromise and underdeliver is a /bad/ plan? Fuck these idiots. They ruined a good thing for a lot of companies who had more compelling tech and actually did the job of setting and managing expectations well. I always knew these idiots would fail hard. It's a shame that their idiocy harmed the investment opportunities for real contenders.

Magic Charlatans

[JackAxe]

Every video this fake company put out was obvious bullshit, but yet fools happily invested in what they saw. The guy that owns this farce must have a silver tongue.