If you’ve been following the saga of Magic Leap, the augmented reality startup that’s raised a quadrillion dollars–okay, $2.3 billion–to make a very special headset, you may have come to the conclusion that it was the best-funded vaporware in history.
But no more. Today, in a live-streamed announcement, the Florida company said that it will finally be shipping its first product, the Magic Leap One Creator Edition, “this summer.”
We still don’t know a precise date, or price, but in the world of consumer technology products, this is Really Big News. And it came just hours after AT&T said it would be the exclusive U.S. purveyor of Magic Leap products, as part of a new investment in the startup. (You can watch the announcement and demos in the video below.)
In the years since Magic Leap first leapt onto the scene, other companies, like Meta, Microsoft, ODG, and others, have kind of stolen the company’s thunder. But those who have seen prototypes of the One Creator Edition have said it’s pretty exciting. I guess the rest of us will find out soon enough.
Magic Leaps object positioning will make anyone who develops for Microsoft Hololens wet in their dream. Love the built-in eye-tracking and autorecognition of floor, ceiling, tables and other flat surfaces. #MagicLeapLive pic.twitter.com/t7JeJAcMCy
— Marcus Anzengruber (@marcusanz) July 11, 2018
However, if you are the type of person who pays attention to product launch announcements, you might have noticed that it’s pretty odd that Magic Leap is now promising to ship this summer when it is already summer. That’s a new one to me. So we’ll see. And I guess we’ll also see what $2.3 billion buys you. After this much time and hype, it’d better be good.
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