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Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

techcrunch.com

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

#171

Post by Impossible »

xiaolingxiao wrote: post #8

They're exploring a sale valued at $10B, but it's doubtful who would have the appetite to buy it at this valuation. Google declined a follow on round recently, Apple has been developing their own tech for years, and Facebook has quietly stepped away from AR/VR. Magic Leap is reminiscent of another company with "Magic" in its name: General Magic ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Magic ). They both made a product…

Facebook is one of the most active players in the space, Oculus Quest is the best selling VR hardware outside of PSVR and continues to sell out regularly. Facebook is also working on new VR applications and new VR hardware. Not sure where you got the impression that they've quietly stepped away when they are actively working on new products... Maybe the marketing feels reduced?

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

#172

Post by Balgair »

tmh79 wrote: post #109
slg wrote: post #2

Does this officially place the Magic Leap's consumer device on the list of the biggest vaporware products in the history of the tech industry? I don't know whether there was some tech hurdle they could never get over or if they were just straight up selling a fantasy from the beginning, but this result has seemed to be the likely destination for years.

They weren't selling a fantasy, they were selling real tech. Their block has been "consumerizing" it. My understanding (from sources who have experienced the demo) is that their first demo was BONKERS. They projected light right onto the users eyes, so instead of having a AR heads up display, you had a light beam projecting images into your eye so they could add elements into your field of vision and make it look lik…

> They projected light right onto the users eyes,

> they couldn't get that demo into any sort of a state where it could be commercialized

Dear Lord! I would hope that they couldn't get that out. Putting lasers directly into your eye sounds like a perfect recipe for large scale disaster. I don't care how many people say it's safe or how many papers there are out there on it, all it takes is a few microseconds of error just once in your whole life and it's boom lights out forever.

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

#173

Post by bitL »

gonehome wrote: post #88
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.

Supposedly the magic leap demo was actually cool and used different technology than the eventually crappy hardware they ended up sort of shipping. I think they couldn’t get it to a place where it could be small enough to be useful? Hopefully when Apple ships AR hardware for real it’ll be what it should be. Magic leap will be kind of like General Magic or the creative nomad jukebox - right idea but too early with hard…

> than when I had played with VR hardware for the first time

AR is 1-2 orders of magnitude more demanding than VR, so if we get to acceptable screen-door-effect-less VR on 30TFlops hardware, we might need like 1 Petaflop for the same with AR. That won't fit into a pocket anytime soon, but we can build such experiences on beefy demo rigs.

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

#174

Post by Kiro »

adamc wrote: post #129
three_seagrass wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the segway solution. Cool tech that solves a problem which doesn't really exist.

Kind of like VR for games? Which I have yet to meet anyone who uses...

I don't recognize that at all. I know too many to count that have an Oculus Quest and quite many had regular VR headsets before that.

Personally I play Beat Saber on a daily basis and pretty often other games as well.

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

#175

Post by SahAssar »

xiaolingxiao wrote: post #8

They're exploring a sale valued at $10B, but it's doubtful who would have the appetite to buy it at this valuation. Google declined a follow on round recently, Apple has been developing their own tech for years, and Facebook has quietly stepped away from AR/VR. Magic Leap is reminiscent of another company with "Magic" in its name: General Magic ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Magic ). They both made a product…

> inspire a whole generation of developers in a way that hasn't been done since the release of the original iPhone.

I don't really think this is true. Most of what I've heard about magic leap from developers has been skepticism, while the hype seems to have been from VCs and journalists.

Any particular examples of the enthusiasm you've seen?

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

#176

Post by CharlesW »

braythwayt wrote: post #165

A little perpendicular to the subject, but this kind of thing always brings my mind back to iPhone. Apple had AT LEAST four kicks at the can with mobile devices. They had the "Knowledge Navigator" vaporware in 1987, twenty years before iPhone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_navigator They started working on realizing the KN concept in 1987, and shipped Newton in 1993, fourteen years before iPhone. Alas, the…

> 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

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

#177

Post by Kiro »

cbsks wrote: post #25
xiaolingxiao wrote: post #8

They're exploring a sale valued at $10B, but it's doubtful who would have the appetite to buy it at this valuation. Google declined a follow on round recently, Apple has been developing their own tech for years, and Facebook has quietly stepped away from AR/VR. Magic Leap is reminiscent of another company with "Magic" in its name: General Magic ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Magic ). They both made a product…

> Facebook has quietly stepped away from AR/VR Has Facebook de-prioritized Oculus? I haven't heard any news, but I'm also not following it closely.

Not at all. xiaolingxiao is simply wrong or didn't know Oculus is Facebook.

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

#178

Post by braythwayt »

CharlesW wrote: post #176
braythwayt wrote: post #165

A little perpendicular to the subject, but this kind of thing always brings my mind back to iPhone. Apple had AT LEAST four kicks at the can with mobile devices. They had the "Knowledge Navigator" vaporware in 1987, twenty years before iPhone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_navigator They started working on realizing the KN concept in 1987, and shipped Newton in 1993, fourteen years before iPhone. Alas, the…

> 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

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.

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

#179

Post by russh »

jnsie wrote: post #149
gonehome wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Supposedly the magic leap demo was actually cool and used different technology than the eventually crappy hardware they ended up sort of shipping. I think they couldn’t get it to a place where it could be small enough to be useful? Hopefully when Apple ships AR hardware for real it’ll be what it should be. Magic leap will be kind of like General Magic or the creative nomad jukebox - right idea but too early with hard…

> creative nomad jukebox Holy crap, the memories. I had the creative nomad jukebox and for years convinced myself if fit in the pockets of my jeans...it did...but it didn't. The folly of youth!?

In it's defense, mine still works.
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