Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 449 posts

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#231

Post by swebs »

alephnan wrote: post #163
save_ferris wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo is a well-established company with a solid platform for its Switch that sells millions of units. They've been doing this for a little while longer tbf. I get the sense that "shifting focus" means that Magic Leap were so focused on the hardware that they didn't really think concretely about bringing a viable platform to market, or something like that. I just don't understand how a company raises that kind of…

Nintendo's never competed with other gaming platforms on a technology basis, and they've shown novel experiences can be adapted from less edge bleeding technology. Thread from earlier this month: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22791300

>Nintendo's never competed with other gaming platforms on a technology basis

Do you think the Wii was their first console or something?

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#232

Post by swebs »

Alex3917 wrote: post #54
Ididntdothis wrote: post #3

This is such a weird company. They created big buzz over years and it seems they are just fading away quietly with nothing to show for the money they took in. Reminds me a little of Theranos (although not as criminal). Why do these investors keep pumping so much money into a company that has nothing to show? I thought they do due diligence.

> Reminds me a little of Theranos (although not as criminal). More like Dean Kamen's launch of "Ginger" in 2001.

The Segway actually launched and sold and delivered on its technical promises. The problem was that most people didn't want to spend $3000 on one.

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#233

Post by pfranz »

Jerry2 wrote: post #227
CharlesW wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple had AT LEAST four kicks at the can with mobile devices. Another interesting Apple mobile device "kick": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Rokr

Rokr had nothing to do with Apple. Motorola just licensed iTunes compatibility. That was not Apple's device.

I always saw it testing a business relationship with the cellular industry rather than any serious effort. The iPhone wasn't successful in a vacuum; Apple Stores, relationship to a carrier, deployment of iTunes all contributed to getting traction. I'm sure Rokr had more influence than Knowledge navigator did.

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#234

Post by chadlavi »

whoisjuan wrote: post #228
chadlavi wrote: post #78

Magic Leap is like the story of overhyped, over-priced tech vaporware investments in the 2010s all embodied in one company.

The Magic Leap device at least worked and had a wow factor even though it didn't have a market fit. I prefer Juicero. That's really a prime example of overhyped and overpriced tech investments.

Cripes, I forgot about that crazy scam.

Magic Leap is at least a tech product, though. And even though they had some actual device, the thing they marketed was complete fiction, they never brought the promise from that whale demo to market.

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#235

Post by pfranz »

mikestew wrote: post #226
braythwayt wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh Gawd, I remember that. I believe that Apple never had any intention of making that successful, and were planning on backstabbing Motorola no matter how the Rokr turned out.

"Planning"? Apple released the iPod Nano the same day the Rockr was announced. Mid-level candy bar phone with not much capacity to store said "tunes", or a cute little music player with 2-4 times what the Rockr would hold? The Rockr seemed to me to be one of those products that was only released because of inertia. Or released because Apple blind-sided Motorola with that announcement and, "well, the ad spend is alrea…

I'm pretty sure the Rokr had an artificial cap of 100 songs for whatever reason.

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#236

Post by baxtr »

adam_fallon_ wrote: post #75

I sort of always knew it was the job of VCs to hype up their portfolio, but i've never seen it as bare faced as when Benedict Evans was shilling Magic Leap saying things along the lines of "Magic Leap was the coolest thing I'd seen since the iPhone. It's now much cooler than that." and "I’ve had the Magic Leap demo. It was worth going to Florida for." Well that looks a bit silly now doesn't it.

His newsletter has “.. 135,000 subscribers, with a wide and senior audience in technology, media and finance.”

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#237

Post by braythwayt »

pfranz wrote: post #233
Jerry2 wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rokr had nothing to do with Apple. Motorola just licensed iTunes compatibility. That was not Apple's device.

I always saw it testing a business relationship with the cellular industry rather than any serious effort. The iPhone wasn't successful in a vacuum; Apple Stores, relationship to a carrier, deployment of iTunes all contributed to getting traction. I'm sure Rokr had more influence than Knowledge navigator did.

Very insightful!

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#238

Post by catalogia »

vel0city wrote: post #217
catalogia wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't put lysol [on electronics] Why shouldn't I? The exterior surfaces of "electronics" are just glass, plastic or aluminum and lysol seems to work fine on all three. It's sold in plastic bottles so it's not like it'd create nerve gas or something. Not that I generally take marketing claims seriously, but lysol advertises itself as appropriate for use on electronics: https://www.lysol.com/cold-flu/home/how-to-clea…

Exterior surfaces for electronics are usually fine for stuff like Lysol. The fear is largely that if it gets inside on the electronic components it may leave behind conductive residues. Straight alcohol will entirely evaporate soon after application so a bit of ingress with the device powered off shouldn't cause any lasting effects, but who knows what makes up the fragrances and other ingredients in many cleaners.

Just use common sense. Wet a paper towel with the cleaner and wipe down the electronics with that, rather than dunking your phone into a bucket of the stuff.

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#239

Post by throwaway55554 »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #3

This is such a weird company. They created big buzz over years and it seems they are just fading away quietly with nothing to show for the money they took in. Reminds me a little of Theranos (although not as criminal). Why do these investors keep pumping so much money into a company that has nothing to show? I thought they do due diligence.

> ... with nothing to show for the money they took in

They made some Incredibles 2 style goggles.

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#240

Post by CobrastanJorji »

nogabebop23 wrote: post #193
gonehome wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not talking about their fake demo ads they put everywhere, I think they actually had an impressive in person demo using some different technology they couldn't miniaturize.

WHy wouldn't they push the narative "Look at this - now we'll make it smaller" vs. "it's awesome - trust us and wait"? Even snake oil salesmen have a demo if they're good; these guys suck at being phonies.

They got to series E funding and raised over a billion dollars. If they were phonies, they were phenomenal ones.
Post reply on HN