{"id":4034,"date":"2020-12-03T23:50:53","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T23:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/03\/where-next-for-magic-leap-inside-the-companys-reinvention\/"},"modified":"2020-12-03T23:50:53","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T23:50:53","slug":"where-next-for-magic-leap-inside-the-companys-reinvention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/03\/where-next-for-magic-leap-inside-the-companys-reinvention\/","title":{"rendered":"Where next for Magic Leap? Inside the company&#8217;s reinvention"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?rct=j&#038;sa=t&#038;url=https:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/article\/magic-leap-ar-business&#038;ct=ga&#038;cd=CAIyHGQzYWQwNmI0YTFiYjA3MmU6Y28udWs6ZW46R0I&#038;usg=AFQjCNFdVRrLckRtWgU2bLPEnCUsf1-TNA\">Where next for Magic Leap? Inside the company&#8217;s reinvention<\/a><\/p>\n<figure class=\"bb-figure bb-figure--landscape bb-figure--custom bb-figure--internal\">\n<div class=\"bb-figure__wrapper\">\n                        <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/C7h1cF.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"c-image c-image--lazyload \" alt data-srcset=\"https:\/\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/C7h1cF.jpg 405w, https:\/\/wi-images.condecdn.net\/image\/Z2Xdgyv15aV\/crop\/810\/f\/wired-magicleap-4.jpg 810w, https:\/\/wi-images.condecdn.net\/image\/Z2Xdgyv15aV\/crop\/1020\/f\/wired-magicleap-4.jpg 1020w, https:\/\/wi-images.condecdn.net\/image\/Z2Xdgyv15aV\/crop\/1440\/f\/wired-magicleap-4.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/wi-images.condecdn.net\/image\/Z2Xdgyv15aV\/crop\/1620\/f\/wired-magicleap-4.jpg 1620w\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\"><br \/>\n                        <noscript><br \/>\n                            <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/C7h1cF.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" class alt><br \/>\n                        <\/noscript>\n        <\/div>\n<div class=\"bb-figure__content\" readability=\"32.5\"><figcaption class=\"bb-figure__caption\" readability=\"5\">\n<p class=\"bb-p\">The company is still selling the three-piece Magic Leap One headset, which launched in 2018, but new hardware is being developed<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">Back in 1999, the interactive artist group Blast Theory debuted <em class=\"bb-em\">Desert Rain<\/em>, one of first augmented reality theatrical installations \u2013 then known as mixed reality. Players picked their way through virtual images from the 1991 Gulf War projected onto a curtain of water as they tried to complete an amorphous mission inspired by Jean Baudrillard\u2019s assertion that the Gulf War was a virtual event. <\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">Since then, the tech-focused group has created eerily prophetic pieces about surveillance tech, the rise of the far right and, in 2019, the effect of a flu outbreak in US cities that ignored social distancing \u2013 so co-founder Matt Adams has uncanny predictive form when it comes to discussing recent issues in AR\u2019s consumer tech stumbles such as Magic Leap and Google Glass.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad__main is-hidden ad--article ad--article-rail ad--article-rail-top stick-wrapper \">\n<div class=\"ad__block stick-element\">\n<h5 class=\"ad__title\">Advertisement<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">\u201cAt its heart, the recent crash and burn is a misunderstanding of the use case for VR and AR,\u201d Adams argues. \u201cThe whole use is predicated on you using this in your living room \u2013 but you don\u2019t normally put headphones on and absent yourself with other people there. The traditional video-games model is people sitting and watching each other play. It\u2019s still not great in terms of resolution, latency and content, and the question that\u2019s not been answered is: what kind of experience needs to be in that environment? All of these things may yet be solved \u2013 it\u2019s not fatally doomed. I\u2019ve seen training for miners underground when there\u2019s a disaster. For that idea it seems really sensible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">This shift to training and enterprise is the new hope for Magic Leap, founded in 2010 by charismatic CEO Rony Abovitz. Abovitz raised nearly $3.5 billion (\u00a32.6bn) in venture funding from investors such as Google, Alibaba, Fidelity and Andreessen Horowitz, valuing the company at $6.4 billion (\u00a34.8bn), according to PitchBook, but his long-awaited headset failed to take off. <\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">Last December, the company launched its selling-to-businesses strategy. In April, it laid of 1,000 employees, Abovitz departed in May, and, in August, Peggy Johnson, 58, was appointed CEO \u2013 having run business development at Microsoft, brokering partnerships and shepherding its acquisitions, including the 2016 purchase of LinkedIn. It\u2019s her job to oversee the new direction, but, she says, it\u2019s also to nurse Magic Leap\u2019s plans to return to consumers when the time is right. <\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">\u201cI had a pretty good view of the company from outside because I knew Rony,\u201d she explains. \u201cHe\u2019d invited me down to see the factory in Florida about two years before I started, and I was impressed with the tech. What I found when I got to the company was that nothing was broken. The tech was better than I thought, and what they did in the factory was amazing. If they needed something, they would just build it \u2013 the iteration was impressive.&#8221; <\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad__main is-hidden ad--article ad--article-inline  \">\n<div class=\"ad__block \">\n<h5 class=\"ad__title\">Advertisement<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">&#8220;The biggest issue was: we needed more focus,&#8221; she says. &#8220;Like any early technology you\u2019re not sure where this is going to resonate best and earliest. That happens to be in the enterprise space, much like mobile phones started in enterprise before we were all carrying them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">Johnson spent 24 years at Qualcomm before joining Microsoft in 2014. She serves on the board of directors at investment management giant BlackRock Inc, and in 2016 set up Microsoft\u2019s venture capital fund M12 to invest in cloud computing and AI start-ups. She sees Magic Leap\u2019s immediate future as focusing on healthcare, defence and telecommunications \u2013 with healthcare \u201cmaybe a little bit supercharged because of the Covid-19 situation\u201d and defence \u201calready used to the idea of Heads-Up Display in night vision, so it\u2019s a natural progression.\u201d Although the company prefers to say it\u2019s in \u201cspatial computing\u201d, she still likes to talk about AR.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">\u201cThere are companies in those sectors that are trying to solve a problem who don\u2019t know much about AR, so we sit down together, and we come up with solutions,\u201d she explains. \u201cThat\u2019s been a big focus area of ours \u2013 understanding what problems people are trying to solve.\u201d Recently, she explains, Magic Leap worked with a team of surgeons at UC Davis Children\u2019s Hospital in California who were <a href=\"https:\/\/health.ucdavis.edu\/health-news\/newsroom\/rare-set-of-conjoined-twins-successfully-separated-in-24-hour-surgery-at-uc-davis-childrens-hospital\/2020\/10\" class=\"bb-a\">operating on cojoined twins<\/a> Abigail and Micaela Bachinskiy, born connected at the head \u2013 an issue that occurs once in every 2.5 million births. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"bb-figure bb-figure--landscape bb-figure--custom bb-figure--internal\">\n<div class=\"bb-figure__wrapper\">\n                        <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/n56mC1.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"c-image c-image--lazyload \" alt data-srcset=\"https:\/\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/n56mC1.jpg 405w, https:\/\/wi-images.condecdn.net\/image\/0jaqGrPVA4w\/crop\/810\/f\/wired-magicleap-2.jpg 810w, https:\/\/wi-images.condecdn.net\/image\/0jaqGrPVA4w\/crop\/1020\/f\/wired-magicleap-2.jpg 1020w, https:\/\/wi-images.condecdn.net\/image\/0jaqGrPVA4w\/crop\/1440\/f\/wired-magicleap-2.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/wi-images.condecdn.net\/image\/0jaqGrPVA4w\/crop\/1620\/f\/wired-magicleap-2.jpg 1620w\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\"><br \/>\n                        <noscript><br \/>\n                            <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/n56mC1.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" class alt><br \/>\n                        <\/noscript>\n        <\/div>\n<div class=\"bb-figure__content\" readability=\"32\"><figcaption class=\"bb-figure__caption\" readability=\"4\">\n<p class=\"bb-p\">Magic Leap\u2019s new CEO sees the company&#8217;s immediate future focusing on healthcare, defence and telecommunications<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<aside class=\"ad__main is-hidden ad--article ad--article-inline  \">\n<div class=\"ad__block \">\n<h5 class=\"ad__title\">Advertisement<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">The 30 surgeons involved in the operation explored the complex network of blood vessels the team would need to detangle and separate inside the twins\u2019 heads using Magic Leap\u2019s headset, running through the procedure before bringing the twins into the operating room. \u201cYou can take a room of people who are very good at brain surgery and the can practise something that\u2019s not done very often to show them what it\u2019s going to look like,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">Right now, the company is still selling the three-piece Magic Leap One headset, which launched in 2018. \u201cThe first-generation hardware is phenomenal,\u201d Johnson explains enthusiastically. \u201cIt\u2019s a hands-free high compute, high field of view experience. That has a lot of value and it\u2019s something we can leverage right now. Our next generation product is going to be less weight on the eyes, larger field of view, so we\u2019re excited about where we are going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">Onlookers are cautious. \u201cEven including the enterprise space, the total number of units shipped was just over 100,000 last year,\u201d says George Jijiashvili, senior analyst at Omdia. \u201cEnterprise is certainly a much better fit for Magic Leap, but success in this space is far from guaranteed. AR headset makers Google, Microsoft, and Vuzix have focused on enterprise for many years and will be a force to be reckoned with. Magic Leap is actually looking to become more of a service provider than selling headsets. That\u2019s its real business model.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">\u201cWe are a platform company,\u201d Johnson agrees, moving the company away from Abovitz\u2019s vision of a closed system run with an emphasis on secrecy. \u201cPartners will help with some of the go-to-market side of things. I have a partnering background \u2013 so in this situation with the current device I can\u2019t go and build up a huge sales team, but there\u2019s a lot of people that have an enterprise sales team that I can work with. We\u2019re also looking to work with companies who have come up with an amazing app \u2013 when you open up the APIs to the third-party ecosystem you see brilliance come out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">She still sees Magic Leap as consumer product in the end. Long-term forecasts are optimistic. A November survey from Businesswire predicted the global augmented reality and virtual reality market will account for $1,274.4bn in 2030, up from $37.0bn in 2019. \u201cIt\u2019s so similar to the journey I was on in mobile where you had big phones at the beginning&#8230; it looked so cool back then, but now you laugh at them,\u201d she recalls. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a phone you could put in your pocket, but if you were out and about you could make this call \u2013 and that is the stage we\u2019re in right now with AR.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">&#8220;I think there\u2019s more value in the Covid world,&#8221; she adds. &#8220;We\u2019re not going to be going back to catching planes at the drop of a hat, so maybe more meetings will be virtual.\u201d Johnson says that as there\u2019s more demand for the technology, price and size will come down. \u201cThere will be more integration with the silicon \u2013 that was the big breakthrough in mobile phones when all the chips could be integrated into one system. That\u2019s where we\u2019re headed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">It\u2019s a cheerful view. In the short term, the reality is likely to be much more complex. \u201cThere is currently next to no market for consumer AR headsets as it stands,\u201d explains Jijiashvili. \u201cThe only company that could move the needle is Apple. It\u2019s rumoured that they\u2019re working on something in this space, but even that is no guarantee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\">\u201cI think much of it is a size game,\u201d Johnson offers, confidently. \u201cWe saw that with mobile phones. They got smaller, and then Apple came out with the app store and made it into something new with a whole new ecosystem. We are well positioned even today because we\u2019ve taken a lot of the weight out of the headset and you wear it on your waistband or belt. You\u2019ve got to get the mass-market silicon stage where you can take weight and power consumption out \u2013 because power drives the battery and the battery is heavy. Those are the box checks to get us to consumer, and we\u2019re very positioned. We\u2019ll be back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\"><em class=\"bb-em\">Peggy Johnson was one of the speakers at WIRED Live \u2013 the inspirational festival bringing the WIRED brand to life. Find out more about future WIRED Events <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/event\/wired-events\" class=\"bb-a\">here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"bb-h4\" id=\"more-great-stories-from-wired\">More great stories from WIRED<\/h4>\n<p class=\"bb-p\"><strong class=\"bb-strong\">\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddf3 Much of the world is suffering with a second wave \u2013 but China isn\u2019t. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/article\/china-crushed-coronavirus-pandemic\" class=\"bb-a\">Here\u2019s how it crushed Covid-19<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\"><strong class=\"bb-strong\">\u2764\ufe0f It\u2019s tempting to share passwords with you partner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/article\/password-security-sharing\" class=\"bb-a\">but you should stop<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\"><strong class=\"bb-strong\"> \ud83d\udce7 Nigerian Prince email scams have a long legacy, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/article\/nigeria-end-sars-protests-police\" class=\"bb-a\">including boosting the growth of a notorious police unit<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad__main is-hidden ad--article ad--article-rail stick-wrapper \">\n<div class=\"ad__block stick-element\">\n<h5 class=\"ad__title\">Advertisement<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"bb-p\"><strong class=\"bb-strong\">\ud83d\udd0a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/article\/the-wired-podcast\" class=\"bb-a\">Listen to The WIRED Podcast<\/a>, the week in science, technology and culture, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/article\/the-wired-podcast\" class=\"bb-a\">delivered every Friday<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"bb-p\"><strong class=\"bb-strong\">\ud83d\udc49 Follow WIRED on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WiredUK\" class=\"bb-a\">Twitter<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wireduk\/\" class=\"bb-a\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WiredUK\/\" class=\"bb-a\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/wired-uk\/\" class=\"bb-a noskim\">LinkedIn<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Published at Thu, 03 Dec 2020 06:00:00 +0000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Where next for Magic Leap? Inside the company&#8217;s reinvention The company is still selling the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-augmented-virtual-reality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/techclot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/C7h1cF.jpg?fit=405%2C270&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3orZX-134","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}