The internet is now abuzz with the news circulating online that the mysterious Magic Leap hardware is about to be released in the next few months!
Bloomberg, in one of its reports last week, cited that the Florida-based startup hopes to ship its first Magic Leap hardware to a ‘small group of users’ within the next six months. Stressing three people familiar with the company’s plans as the alleged source of the news.
While Magic Leap Inc. has yet to reveal the release date of its long-awaited hardware, the Magic Leap One, Bloomberg’s sources confirmed that its debut price will be between $1,500 and $2,000 USD.
#MagicLeap to release its mysterious hardware within the next six months!Click To TweetMagic Leap rose to popularity after attracting high-profile investments from globally renowned tech giants such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Qualcomm Inc., and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. According to reports, Google directly invested in the said startup company, which placed CEO Sundar Pichai on the board.
Magic Leap: Investments and the Magic Leap One
To date, Magic Leap’s current value stands at $4.5 billion USD, backed mainly by Alibaba, Google, and Andreessen Horowitz. However, reports said that the company is now negotiating with Temasek Holdings Pte., an investment company owned by Singapore, for a new round of financing that is estimated to worth over $500 million USD.
Should Magic Leap and Temasek reach a deal, the mixed-reality company’s value would come close to $6 billion USD!
Despite the investments and popularity that the company gained, details of the alleged Magic Leap hardware has not been released. Right now, all people have are the series of videos published on the company website that was allegedly shot, directly, through the Magic Leap technology.
According to Bloomberg’s reliable sources, the Magic Leap hardware would be bigger than a pair of glasses, but smaller than virtual reality headsets such as the Oculus Rift. Furthermore, the alleged headset would require users to carry a puck-shaped device which was said to be around the size of a smartphone. The additional device would provide the wireless processing and information to the headgear.
Apparently, Magic Leap’s ambitious goal of developing its own hardware and software together with the expensive electronic components that the device requires, are the two primary reasons why the company is in need of great financing.
In his blog post published in January of this year, Magic Leap founder and CEO, Rony Abovitz said:
“Our first system will be the first step towards a really cool dream. Of flying squirrels and sea monkeys and rainbow powered unicorns. Of most anything you can imagine. Powered by very serious engineering and technology, built and designed by some of the best engineers and scientists in the world, with all of us dreaming the same dream.”
Among the lofty promises made by Magic Leap was the light-field technology that it would equip its device. The company claimed that the said technology would simulate 3D images superimposed on the real world, which in turn would create mixed reality.
Abovitz explained that the system would project patterns into the eye and would let the user see virtual objects naturally, simulating how people see things in reality.
While the Magic Leap hardware looks promising, Abovitz’s ambitious claims of how his company’s technology would change consumer lives have made some people skeptical of the final product. Still, the mystery shrouding the Magic Leap hardware is enough to raise excitement for its upcoming release.
“To date, Magic Leap’s current value stands at $4.5 billion USD”
“a new round of financing that is estimated to worth over $500 million USD.”
“Should Magic Leap and Temasek reach a deal, the mixed-reality company’s value would come close to $6 billion USD!”
1) 4.5 + 0.5 = 5, not 6
2) I don’t think “value” is the word your looking for. What you’re talking about is how much has been invested. Since they are looking for more, it’s safe to assume they spent alot.
Good points Christopher. Please allow me to address them.
1. The worth of the Magic Leap-Temasek deal was not exactly divulged by the sources familiar with the negotiation, except that it would be “over $500 million.” By ‘over’, it could be anywhere between $501 million or $999 million. No one really knows at this point but that would make the company’s value closer to $6 billion. Just closer, not exactly $6 billion. All we have now are mere estimates based on data gathered and we would update this article with the exact figures as soon as details are released.
2. Since Magic Leap is a startup, its value is currently computed based on the investments or money needed to finance its projects. That said, I guess it is safe to say that the $4.5 billion coming from investments and other assests of Magic Leap would equal to its value. Please refer to this link for further explanation. https://blog.adioma.com/how-startup-valuation-works-infographic/
I agree though that with their ambitious goal and press releases, they would have to spend more, on top of what they have already shed, just to support their claims and make their AR technology a reality.
Magic Leap has raised $1.4B at a post-money valuation of $4.5B. They probably allowed early investors and employees to cash out at each round so may have kept a little over $1B to grow the company. The secondary market for Magic Leap and any private company fluctuates between rounds (20% is common).
This is a down market currently for VR companies (Facebook demoting the CEO of Occulus and firing the founder, HTC trying to sell Vive business, Microsoft losing interest in Hololens like they did with Kinect) and all Unicorns with Blue Apron, Snap and even Uber (privately marked down) falling.
If they can raise $500M at post-money valuation of $6B, with Temasek as the lead investor on the round and Google/Alibaba also participating–it’ll be proof of the CEO’s amazing ability as fundraiser. I’m rooting for them. In fact, we should all be rooting for them to succeed, including direct competitors–this is such a small field that if they fail it’ll take down the whole industry again like what happened in the mid-90’s, the last time VR was hot. I think they’ll make it.
Good points, but the AR market is still forecasted at USD$90b by 2020, from around USD$5bn today and right now Magic Leap have the monopoly.
They may be superseded by Apple if they don’t get a move on. Applications are key, they don’t have the ecosystem Apple and Microsoft have. If they can launch major consumer capability then they will be successful but I feel as though they are ignoring business which is the platform they need to launch and gather momentum. Google just figured this out with Google Glass Enterprise.
Everyone wants to capture the huge hardcore gamer market but hardcore gamers are impossible to please with a 1st generation product. Enterprise is too small to sustain a unicorn (most unicorns are consumer facing). Their best bet is to create a new category like YouTube did for entertainment rather than trying to fit a round peg into the current square holed marketplace.
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