The much-anticipated Magic Leap One augmented reality headset finally made its (limited) retail debut almost two weeks ago today. With all of the buzz around this “leap” in AR technology, we have one question. What is the use case for our enterprise-level clients? And, was it enough of a leap?
While Magic Leap’s headset looks like a promising start, it seems pretty far away from being a viable platform for enterprise sales and marketing applications. The reported 40-degree field of view — which is the size of a credit card — is only marginally better than the Microsoft Hololens, and while a narrow field like that is useful in limited business cases like overlaying maintenance information, it prevents creating a fully immersive experience that will capture the imagination of customers and close deals.
The other concern we have is that Magic Leap glasses are fundamentally a personal device. Sixty-four percent of adults use glasses and will, therefore, need to have custom prescription inserts for the Magic Leap glasses to produce a clear picture. What that implies is that, practically speaking, the customer or prospect will need to have their own goggles. So, the platform has to be a success in the consumer space, on the scale of the mobile phone, before applications can be useful in most sales engagements. With an entry price point of $2,295, we have obvious concerns about widespread, consumer adoption.
The Magic Leap One AR headset was definitely a leap in the right direction, but a bigger leap is needed to impact the world of enterprise businesses.
Need a primer on the Magic Leap One AR headset? CNET published a concise but comprehensive overview.
What are you thoughts on the Magic Leap One? We would love to hear them in the comments below or on Twitter @marketing3D!
Joshua Smith is the Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Kaon Interactive.
Kaon Interactive 