Both Google and Magic Leap announced that the two companies have entered into a tech partnership, as Google looks to take a move into argument reality. The press releases from both companies didn’t give all the clear information you would want to know regarding the partnership, but one thing was sure: the two American tech companies are working on a new AR gadget or device.
Official Announcements from the Companies
“We look forward to bringing together Magic Leap’s leadership in optics and manufacturing with our technologies to bring a wider range of immersive experiences to market. By combining efforts, we can foster the future of the XR ecosystem with unique and innovative product offerings,” said Shahram Izadi, V. President and General Manager of AR/XR at Google.
“This partnership accelerates the transformative power of AR by combining our extensive optics capabilities with Google’s technologies to continue to advance immersive experiences for the developer ecosystem and for customers. We are looking forward to expanding the potential of XR—blending the physical world with valuable, contextually relevant solutions,” said Julie Larson-Green, CTO at Magic Leap.
Google Enters a Strategic Partnership with Magic Leap
Augmented reality companies Magic Leap and Google announced a partnership. The partnership will see Magic Leap work together with Google to exploit the company’s expertise in optics and device manufacturing in alliance with Google’s tech platforms. Both companies would leverage their expertise to come up with highly advanced AR gadgets.
Recall that in 2021, the two companies were working together on AR software for the Google Cloud platform, so it’s been quite a while since they collaborated to make something.
Magic Leap attracted prominent investors in its early days but suffered huge setbacks, which led to the company laying off most of its staff. Now, Magic Leap operates as a B2B company leveraging AR technology to create tech solutions and manufacture components for other companies.
Not only Google and Meta allegedly wanted a collaboration with Magic Leap on a joint AR headset, but only the Google partnership is official at this moment.
Apparently, Google hasn’t got it right with its AR gadgets—the Google Glass wasn’t a success, and Google is looking to launch a better gadget with better features. Also, Google is trying to make its Android OS seamlessly support XR with the Android XR platform to power more virtual reality headsets and gadgets. To this end, Google is already working with Samsung to launch a joint mixed reality headset pretty soon—maybe towards the end of 2024. Now, Google would also partner with Magic Leap to get more products into the market.
There’s a lot to expect from this Google-Magic Leap partnership, and we’ll be covering them as the news reveals. A new Magic Leap AR gadget powered by Google’s Android XR platform? That is most likely possible, but there are no hints whatsoever of such a gadget being in the works. Hands folded, we await to hear more in subsequent press releases from the companies.
