What’s Next for Magic Leap

I look back on 2022 with a level of amazement at what we’ve accomplished at Magic Leap. Our team dedicated countless hours to bringing the market's most advanced augmented reality technology to our customers, which culminated in the launch of Magic Leap 2. While that in and of itself is exciting, there is so much going on in our company and industry that has me energized going into next year.

Magic Leap is a very different company today than when I joined two years ago, and the transformation we’ve accomplished is a testament to our talent and unique culture. We truly stand alone in our industry; unlike many other companies in this space, we are oriented toward a single goal: creating the best platform that makes augmented reality a useful and powerful tool for business.

Magic Leap 2 is the result of our singular focus. It’s a platform that truly addresses the historical barriers that have long held back adoption of Augmented Reality (AR). We invented optics technology that creates a one-of-a-kind viewing experience, have engineered a form factor to comfortably fit many unique head shapes, and made it the lightest and most powerful enterprise AR headset on the market. The industry recognized these efforts and throughout the year bestowed a number of awards on Magic Leap 2 for its innovative design, including an iF Gold Award and a Red Dot Design Best of the Best of 2022 Award. And most recently, Time Magazine featured Magic Leap 2 as one of The Best Inventions of 2022.

But we aren’t satisfied yet and remain focused on improving what makes Magic Leap 2 an industry leading device. We are working with a diverse range of customers to understand where and how AR can create greater value in their businesses. That includes helping a manufacturer, PBC Linear, make gains in the productivity and retention of new hires, Brainlab’s use of AR in surgical planning to enable better patient outcomes in the operating room, and giving Lowe’s retail store associates better insights for managing inventory and product displays.

We have also received an incredible amount of interest from across the industry to license our IP and utilize our patented manufacturing process to produce optics for others seeking to launch their own mixed-reality technology. The fact that companies are asking us to do this doesn’t come as a surprise. It highlights just how hard it is to develop and manufacture AR hardware - and that our years of experience have provided us with a competitive advantage in this market.

As we move into 2023, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the state of the industry and where we see opportunity going forward. 

State of the Industry: Augmented and Virtual Reality  

In the last year, we have seen renewed excitement with mixed reality technologies. The conversation around the possibilities of the metaverse and new product announcements is exciting and strong evidence of the health of the industry.

At Magic Leap, we believe that the metaverse is already here, with many currently experiencing a limited view via phones, computers, and tablets. Our goal is to make our interactions with the metaverse a more natural extension of how we view and operate in the physical world.

I’ve heard a lot of comparisons of AR and virtual reality as major technology companies talk about their vision of the metaverse, but it’s important to note that these are not interchangeable. AR is a very different technology from VR and even passthrough VR, and it has different applications. 

Virtual reality is about building avatars, escaping the physical world, and immersing yourself in artificial worlds. VR may have immediate benefits for gaming and entertainment, but in an enterprise environment, you need to be present in the physical world. No surgeon would operate using VR headset that occludes their view of the patient in front of them and no one working in an industrial setting would put themselves at risk by using a headset that doesn’t allow them to see what’s going around them in real-time.

Businesses don’t have the luxury of escaping to virtual worlds. Businesses live in the real world and the truth is, the technology that delivers the most value for business today is AR. 

What’s Next for Magic Leap

There’s a lot to look forward to in the coming year as the growth of our company and industry accelerates. We’re seeing increasing demand for AR solutions today, and we’re working closely with developers to create new opportunities with AR. We are also growing our team with engineering, software, and product talent that will help us to continue to be the leader in AR technology. 

The best way to understand AR is to experience it, which is why I’m looking forward to starting 2023 at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. In our two story booth located in Tech East, LVCC Central, Booth #15875, we will be showcasing many of the latest AR solutions on Magic Leap 2 including BrainLab, Manifest by Taqtile, Cisco Webex Hologram, and NVIDIA’s Omniverse. We will also be debuting Magic Leap Assist, our remote assistance reference application.  

In January, we will also be attending the World Economic Forum, where Magic Leap is once again being positioned as a thought leader in AR technology. I will be speaking on multiple panels focused on the metaverse and advanced manufacturing and we will be demonstrating Magic Leap 2 to global leaders in business and government. 

Magic Leap is well-positioned to lead the market and power our industry forward. We have put in place the right strategy working closely with enterprise customers and developers. We have an extensive IP portfolio backing the most advanced AR device on the market and business momentum is strong heading into 2023.

I can’t wait to show you what’s next for Magic Leap over the coming year.