Peggy Johnson, Magic Leap CEO, joined CNBC Business News Anchor Julia Boorstin in an exclusive interview to announce the mixed reality (MR) Magic Leap 2.
The announcement comes as the firm moves forward with an enterprise-centric vision following a recently completed round of fundraising worth $500 million.
According to this week’s business programme ‘Power Lunch’, Magic Leap is now worth roughly $2 billion thanks to unnamed investors, down from its previous $3 billion valuation.
The news comes after the firm’s initial MR solution failed to impress markets, which threatened the startup with closure before a last-minute $350 million investment allowed the company to restructure.
Following the underwhelming Magic Leap One, Johnson took over as Chief Executive following the departure of company founder Rony Abovitz, leading to the new investments and restructure.
Peggy’s efforts helped the startup to focus on enterprises and gain a foothold on sectors such as manufacturing and healthcare. The Magic Leap 2 will be the US startup’s first product since the shakeup and hopes to rekindle the hype behind the company.
New Features
The news comes as Magic Leap aims to redefine its MR smartglasses solution as the best enterprise-grade hardware on the market.
In her interview, Peggy Johnson explained the Magic Leap 2 would be significantly lighter then previous models, making it an “all day, everyday” device.
She addded the new ergonomics would be “what the enterprise market has been asking for.”
Peggy also announced the device’s “segmented dimming” feature, which lowers the brightness of a user’s environment to allow them focus on an MR heads up display (HUD).
Additionally, she also claimed the Magic Leap 2 would have “the largest field of view in the industry” as the original Magic Leap One had much smaller 4:3 aspect ratio.
The company also plans to release the final product in 2022 ahead of the Hololens 3, but select customers can test the headset via an early access programme.
