Technology 3 min read

AT&T Makes Exclusive Distribution Deal With Magic Leap

AT&T just announced their investment in the AR/VR firm Magic Leap. | Image by agsandrew | Shutterstock

AT&T just announced their investment in the AR/VR firm Magic Leap. | Image by agsandrew | Shutterstock

AT&T just announced their pairing with Magic Leap, making an exclusive distribution deal with the company in the U.S

After cryptic comments about HBO “needing to compete with mobile“, AT&T announced today that they made a “strategic investment” in the company Magic Leap.

Known for AR offerings and big promises, Magic Leap still claims that it will redesign the future with its fusion of VR and AR technology.

Now with the terms of this new deal, how will it affect Magic Leap?

A Strategic Move for Both Companies

The two companies have not yet disclosed what the financial terms are. But AT&T just spent $85-billion USD in its acquisition of Time Warner and another $2-billion USD in buying AppNexus — an ad firm.

Magic Leap’s last round of funding in March garnered almost $500-million USD from the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

To date, Magic Leap has raised more than $2-billion USD. Due to the exclusive nature of this deal, this investment must not have been insignificant.

Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz commented on the pairing to TechCrunch:

“We’ve joined with AT&T because we believe in a combined vision of expanding high-speed networks, edge computing, and deep integration with creative content…Coupling the strength of the evolving AT&T network with Magic Leap’s spatial computing platform can transform computing experiences for people.”

The first markets to get their hands on these products include:

  • Atlanta
  • Chicago
  • San Francisco
  • Boston
  • Los Angeles

The Deal Coincides With a Magic Leap Release

AT&T gets more perks from being Magic Leap’s exclusive U.S distributor. They can leverage Magic Leap resources for work in content distribution, network access, and devices.

The deal comes in tandem with the Magic Leap One, Creator Edition launch. AT&T CEO John Donovan sees this as a continuation of AT&T’s commitment to future tech:

“We’re designing and offering the future of entertainment and connectivity, and this exclusive arrangement – in combination with our 5G leadership position – will open up new opportunities and experiences.”

The company held demos for the Magic Leap One, Creator Edition on July 11th via the company’s Twitch channel. That means we finally have some hard evidence of what all that seed money funded.

One thing we know for sure is that it uses a Nvidia Tegra X2 processor. The demo also showed that Magic Leap One can interpret hand gestures.

Magic Leap’s release has been a pipe dream for years. Now, however, with a confirmed distribution channel and the backing of AT&T, we may finally see a Magic Leap release some time in the near future.

Is Magic Leap going exclusive a good plan for their future business success?

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Juliet Childers

Content Specialist and EDGY OG with a (mostly) healthy obsession with video games. She covers Industry buzz including VR/AR, content marketing, cybersecurity, AI, and many more.

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