something wasn’t working. In late 2020, Magic Leap announced major changes led by incoming CEO Peggy Johnson. “[W]None of the hats I found were really broken.
From the outside, it certainly looked like a typically low-key CEO remark. It doesn’t take a business genius to point out things aren’t working. Certainly it was not a reflection of technology. Those who got to try Magic Leap’s mixed reality headset were impressed.He spent some time at CES this week talking about the product, and sure feel like the future.
However, the company faced a problem that plagued countless others in this category. The consumer base for the $2,300 mixed reality headset simply wasn’t there. So we did what very well-funded but struggling companies do. Magic Leap has pivoted. Microsoft and he suddenly found himself in the business of business, chasing the same enterprise users that were attracted to Epson.
Pivot was heavily on display on the show floor this week. The demo was not a game, but an artifact of a developer considering his case for very serious use. One, 3D scans of the human brain emerge, showing a path to use in medical practice. In the foreground, a wildfire is underway. A small helicopter circles overhead.
CTO Daniel Diez told TechCrunch that a shift in focus began in earnest at the end of 2019. The timing was indeed a coincidence, for the average consumer.
“We really understood the value of deriving from AR much earlier out of the enterprise,” explains Diez. “That was the feedback we got from them. We also got insight into how the product needed to evolve for the true purpose it was designed for the enterprise, and that’s what we see in Magic Leap 2. It is something that can be done.”
While other companies like Meta and HTC do their best to give everyone everything when it comes to content, Magic Leap wants to put its system in the hands of more consumers. and does not appear to be in any particular hurry. Some kind of sacrifice to the hardware required to get there.
CTO Julie Larson-Green said: “When it comes to consumers, I think she’s going to need other consumer content for her business in parallel, so I’m not really focusing on that aspect right now.”
In recent weeks, the company has made more funding headlines than specific content or hardware. At the end of the year, Saudi Arabia took control through a public investment company. The new influx of money joins about $3.5 billion previously raised by the company, backed by the likes of GV, Alibaba and Qualcomm. Magic Leap’s public struggle, coupled with its massive funding round, has created some open-ended questions about the company’s future.
Asked if the recent funding will have a direct impact on Magic Leap’s future roadmap, Diez said: These are very much in line with our vision of being enterprise-focused and enabling devices to amplify people’s ability to do really complex things. , have the same perception. “
