The Magic Leap 1 will be discontinued. What can the Vision Pro learn from that?

VR is great! Having one of the best VR headsets around can always be a treat, because it can take you away to a place where you can just have some fun in a different way. But AR? That’s where I’d turn to if I were looking to increase my productivity and focus.

And the AR market is in a very weird place. Google canned the Glass project and its — allegedly — making something new. The Vision Pro took the world by storm and this may lead to a new revolution.

But the Magic Leap existed too. It was an AR headset with groundbreaking capabilities and potential, which came out in 2018. And I said “was”, because the headset will officially be discontinued on December 31 2024.



Okay, so, what does that mean? Well, basically it means that Magic Leap’s first headset will stop receiving software updates and the manufacturer won’t be obliged to release new apps, per say. I’d say that third-party devs are free to do so, but given that almost no apps are available for this thing — which is a shame, by the way — I don’t think that could actually happen.

But beyond that, I’d like to take a moment and consider what Apple may learn from the Magic Leap 1. After all, the Vision Pro is looking to be just as impactful to the industry.

And not only that, but before Magic Leap shifted focus completely towards enterprise clients, just like Microsoft did with the HoloLens, it let go of a ton of employees. Employees which went on to work for the Big A and have likely had a hand to play with the Vision Pro.



So, in a way, the two are irrevocably connected. And as such, let’s list off some of the reasons that the Magic Leap 1 failed in a commercial sense:

• A very high price tag of $2,300 (in 2018!)
• Not enough mass-market apps, such as social media
• Issues with objects being too transparent
• Objects were not rendered in the complete FOV capabilities of the headset
• The headset was tethered to a mini PC, which caused cable issues

So, let’s start off by eliminating the ones that the Vision Pro has — seemingly — already resolved. Not enough apps? No way that could happen on Apple’s XR headset. After all, the ecosystem itself will be integrated, so there I don’t think that there is anything to worry about there.

And given how much time Apple spent on hyping up the Vision Pro’s displays, I believe that we’re safe from oddly-transparent objects or incomplete FOV.



What about the cable issues though? Well, the Vision Pro isn’t connected to a computer: it’s connected to what is essentially a portable power bank. Now, weather that may ruin your experience completely depends entirely on if the Vision Pro will be able to sustain itself when being unplugged from the battery pack for a bit.

We don’t really know if that will even be a possibility with the final release unit, so only time will tell what will turn out to be the case there.

Now. The elephant in the room: price. The Magic Leap 1 cost $2,300 upon release and came out with tons less apps being available. Not only that, but $2,300 in 2018 was a way bigger sum than it is now.

So, while I can’t really say if Apple is making the right call with the Vision Pro and its expected $3,500 price tag — which sounds justified, honestly — I can certainly see how one may be able to draw a parallel here. And it wouldn’t be unreasonable at all.



Magic Leap is still a company though and its next headset will be absolutely geared towards enterprise clients. There exists a Tweet where someone from Magic Leap confirmed that another consumer headset may come out in five years or so, but before that: we’ve got the Vision Pro to deal with.

The major concern should be obvious: if Apple doesn’t play its cards right, this may lead to a great product that either can’t be afforded by users or one that ultimately only professionals can make use of.

But this is Apple we’re talking about. And if they manage to pull this one off, it may just turn out to be one of the most entertaining tech-releases of the century.