4 ms·

Just a hypothesis here: they failed because of, not in spite of, the amount of money they had. VR/AR will succeed by making just-barely-good-enough products fo

Just a hypothesis here: they failed because of, not in spite of, the amount of money they had. VR/AR will succeed by making just-barely-good-enough products for specific, limited environments (surgery, repair, control of robots in remote environments, education). Then, it will get slightly better. This requires that a product with a limited market is acceptable, at first, as it was for the very early computers. Big funding encourages one to strive for too much, too soon, too all-in-one-project. Incremental change is required, and that requires that an incremental improvement in market size is good enough. I have no particular inside knowledge of this, it's just an idea/hypothesis.

koboll 8y ago
Also, another factor - Magic Leap decided, perplexingly, to locate itself in a suburb west of Fort Lauderdale. Not the most far-flung location, but not exactly a tech hub, either. I was repeatedly contacted by their recruiters despite living in a completely different part of the country and having limited experience at the time. The impression it left me with is that they were really hurting for talent. Maybe the location is one reason why.
- joezydeco 8y ago
  About 20 years ago, Motorola had a large plant in Boynton. Employed a few thousand engineers working on paging systems and eventually cellular telephony. Lots of it moved up to Chicago later on, but not all of it. What’s left there are the echoes of the employees that hung around. IIRC, XM Satellite Radio has their engineering office in Lauderdale. Wonder where they found all the RF people needed to spin that one up.
  - majewsky 8y ago
    > Boynton Which one? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boynton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boynton I'm guessing the Detroit one since you said "lots of it moved up to Chicago later on".
    - joezydeco 8y ago
      Boynton Beach. http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2004-01-23/business/0401221048_1_motorola-s-plant-motorola-s-strategy-quantum-park http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2004-01-23/business/0401221...
RodoBobJon 8y ago
With the caveat that I also have no particular inside knowledge of this, I think you're on to something. I keep seeing these demos which show virtual video game characters or hyper-realistic objects and I can't help but think that it's complete overkill for a first generation consumer product. From a visual perspective, all I need out of my first gen AR glasses is to project some text annotations next to a real object, or show an arrow where I need to turn left. You don't need to fool me into thinking a virtual object is real. I'm looking for utility, not immersion.

koboll 8y ago

Also, another factor - Magic Leap decided, perplexingly, to locate itself in a suburb west of Fort Lauderdale. Not the most far-flung location, but not exactly a tech hub, either. I was repeatedly contacted by their recruiters despite living in a completely different part of the country and having limited experience at the time. The impression it left me with is that they were really hurting for talent. Maybe the location is one reason why.

joezydeco 8y ago
About 20 years ago, Motorola had a large plant in Boynton. Employed a few thousand engineers working on paging systems and eventually cellular telephony. Lots of it moved up to Chicago later on, but not all of it. What’s left there are the echoes of the employees that hung around. IIRC, XM Satellite Radio has their engineering office in Lauderdale. Wonder where they found all the RF people needed to spin that one up.
- majewsky 8y ago
  > Boynton Which one? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boynton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boynton I'm guessing the Detroit one since you said "lots of it moved up to Chicago later on".
  - joezydeco 8y ago
    Boynton Beach. http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2004-01-23/business/0401221048_1_motorola-s-plant-motorola-s-strategy-quantum-park http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2004-01-23/business/0401221...

RodoBobJon 8y ago

With the caveat that I also have no particular inside knowledge of this, I think you're on to something. I keep seeing these demos which show virtual video game characters or hyper-realistic objects and I can't help but think that it's complete overkill for a first generation consumer product. From a visual perspective, all I need out of my first gen AR glasses is to project some text annotations next to a real object, or show an arrow where I need to turn left. You don't need to fool me into thinking a virtual object is real. I'm looking for utility, not immersion.