It’s been an interesting life for Magic Leap, the augmented reality startup with big dreams and some big moments of hubris thus far.
Today, the company detailed the availability and pricing of its next release: the Magic Leap 2. Unlike its first release, this headset will be geared entirely toward professional users with less intentional vagueness. That professional focus is apparent with the device’s pricing. The new headset will start at $3,299 and be commercially available starting September 30 of this year.
This is $1,000 more than the base price of its previous-generation device, which infamously sold quite poorly compared to internal expectations.
Alongside a base edition, Magic Leap will also be selling a $4,099 “Developer Pro” edition and a $4,999 “Enterprise” version, which appear to be identical from a hardware perspective but include varying levels of customer support and software tool access.
Compared to the last-generation version, the main improvements to the new device include a wider “field-of-view” which enables larger digital images to be overlaid onto the real world. The footprint of the device has been reduced due to a streamlining of the device’s capabilities, which includes getting rid of the dual focal planes that were a hallmark feature of the first device. The headset’s most unique feature is something called “dynamic dimming” which allows the headset to selectively transition between full passthrough and full opacity so that images can appear less transparent in-headset.
Magic Leap has become a very different company since it nearly was forced into shutdown at the beginning of 2020, its enterprise focus comes as interest appears to be shrinking in the near-term market for augmented reality. Its success will rely on being able to find that market.
