Magic Leap released augmented reality glasses that were supposed to turn the industry. It turned out that no one needs them

Magic Leap was one of the most mysterious startups. The company was able to get two billion dollars from the most famous funds and companies (like Google and Alibaba) - without even showing any product. For several years, no one knew what the engineers are doing. It was only clear that this was due to a supplemented reality: when a person sees objects imposed on reality and can interact with them. The leadership of Magic Leap promised to turn the world of augmented reality.

Gradually, it became clear that we are talking about glasses - and approximately the same as other companies work on. Microsoft has been selling its Hololens for a long time. In August 2018, Magic Leap began selling its first models. Glasses cost at least $ 2300. When the journalists received glasses, it turned out that the coup did not happen : although sometimes the experience surprised , virtual objects that could be observed in glasses often looked poorly, and they were blocked by real objects. In general, the consensus was such that so far there is no need to buy such points.

On December 6, The Information wrote that for six months Magic LEAP has sold only six thousand devices. Although, according to the most modest forecasts within the company, it was planned to sell at least 100 thousand pieces (per year), and the head of the company Roni Abovitz waved to a million devices (also in a year). Inside the company, they do not openly say about sales, despite the fact that employees are asking to tell them at least how many points were sold.

According to The Information, Magic Leap, which spends $ 40-50 million per month, does not go very well. The startup began to dismiss people. It is not known how many people out of 1,700 employees are unknown, but the abbreviations affected several departments. In addition, two top managers resigned from the company: the financial director of Scott Henry and Vice President John Gaet. The board of directors was left by the head of Google Sundar Pichai (as notes The Verge, this may be due to the fact that he headed Alphabet, which includes Google).

Now Magic Leap, which has already attracted $ 2.6 billion, is looking for money to invest it in the development of the second version of the points. Judging by the current prototype, their creation may take several years, the former employee of the company said.

When the article in The Information was published, the marketing director Daniel Diez at the meeting scolded the journalist of the publication, and called the article a clickbeite. The company officially said that the note contains incorrect information.

Vladimir Tsybulsky