Magic Leap has an almost magical way of getting money.
The secretive startup is working on what it calls “mixed reality” technology. It’s different from the virtual reality we’ve all heard about, which uses goggles to strap a screen to your face and display computer-generated images. In mixed reality, computer-generated images are layered on top of the real world.
How impressive Magic Leap’s work is remains an open question, in part because almost no one has seen it. That hasn’t stopped the Dania Beach, Florida-based company from talking about it for more than a year. Now, big-time investors, including Warner Bros. and Chinese Internet giant Alibaba, are plunking down nearly $800 million to be part of the project. The company hasn’t said when its product will be released, nor how much it will cost or what it will look like.
This week’s added investment, which puts Magic Leap’s valuation at $4.5 billion, is just the latest example of the hype surrounding – let’s call it “reality plus” – and the hope these gadgets will become the next money-spinning products. So what if Google Glass, the closest we’ve seen to one of these products realized, has all but disappeared? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who bought major VR maker Oculus for $2 billion two years ago, has gushed about the technology’s potential to be the next major advance in computing.
Brian Wallace, Magic Leap’s marketing chief, agrees there’s a lot of hype in the market. But he says Magic Leap will be different.
“Magic Leap is not VR. VR is focused right now narrowly on gaming and is not portable. Our Mixed Reality Lightfield is portable and has many multiple applications – including gaming – that are considerably broader,” he said Tuesday. “These applications can be applied both inside and outside the home and office.”
Read the full piece at CNET:
http://www.cnet.com/news/magic-leap-has-something-better-than-a-product-potential/