Magic Leap was founded in 2010 and has been teasing their ground-breaking mixed reality technology for at least 2 years now, raising $1.4 billion in the process, but has never publicly shown off their headset.
Last year there were rumours that the company was having difficulty miniaturizing their hardware and that their prototype was unwieldy, blurrier and more jittery that Microsoft’s HoloLens.
Today the first image of the “headset” was leaked by Business Insider (above) which seems to suggest the company does indeed have a long way to go to reach market readiness, at a time when Microsoft is already teasing their second generation hardware.
Their hardware appears to be held together by cable ties and handheld laptop batteries, but their CEO Rony Abovitz addressed these concerns last year, saying:
“The units we are building now are for engineering and manufacturing verification/validation testing, early reliability/quality testing, production line speed, and a bunch of other important parameters,” said Abovitz. “There is also a lot more going in our development of software, applications, cool creative experiences and overall operational readiness.”
According to rumours the company is expected to demonstrate a version of the device to their board soon, and it remains to be seen if they will be as confident in the execution of the management team and the future of the product, given the slow pace of development.
Given the state of the device, do our readers think Magic Leap may be better off giving up now and returning the money to investors? Let us know below.
