In an interview today, Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz danced around questions regarding pricing of the forthcoming Magic Leap One AR headset, saying its pricing should be thought of like a “premium computer,” and that the company is likely to have multiple tiers of the headset to reach different segments.

Speaking on stage at the Code Media conference in Huntington Beach, CA today, Abovitz said that details on pricing and a more specific 2018 launch date for the Magic Leap One headset would be coming this Spring. While he wasn’t ready to pin down dates or pricing, he did give some hints, possibly confirming prior reports stating that the first headset would be priced around $1,000 or more.

SEE ALSO
Magic Leap Finally Unveils its First AR Product 'Magic Leap One', Shipping Starts in 2018

“[Magic Leap One] is a premium computer, so I would think of [pricing] that way,” Abovitz said when pressed on pricing. He later said that, over time, the company expects to have multiple tiers of AR headsets. “Think of [Magic Leap One] as prosumer-ish, and then we’ll have even higher-end for, like, hyper-pro, and then we’ll have, like, [lower] wide mass market [tier].”

Asked if he would consider $200–$300 a “mass market” price, Abovitz quickly answered “no,” before elaborating. “I think Magic Leap is like… think higher-end mobile phone to higher-end tablet zone, [that’s] probably our [price] floor.”

The Magic Leap One AR headset, featuring a battery/compute pack, and controller | Image courtesy Magic Leap

When the interviewer then pointed to his $1,000 iPhone X as an example of a “high-end mobile phone”, Abovitz didn’t disagree with the comparison. He went on to justify the value proposition of the device.

“[…] the number of devices it’s potentially replacing… if you actually add all that up, at some point—we’re not saying for ML One […]—your phones, your televisions, your laptops, your tablets, that add up to thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, [they] all get virtualized,” Abovitz said. “So the economy of what we’re building can actually replace—not on day one, but over the next, let’s say, gen two / gen three—a whole suite of consumer electronics.”

Responding to the interviewer’s question about who the target audience is for the initial launch of Magic Leap One, Abovitz confirmed it will be open for sale to anyone from the outset.

“Magic Leap One, we call it Creator Edition, it’s [for] people who are enthusiasts developers, creators, brands, artists, partner; people that want to get an early taste of what the future looks like,” he said. “It’s not necessarily for everyone right away […] it’s not a dev kit in the sense that… we’re not blocking [anyone from buying it].”

SEE ALSO
Magic Leap AR Headset Hands-on Offers Details on Field of View, Weight & Content

You can watch the full interview from the Code Media conference here.

Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • airwolfdeluxe

    Unless it can shut off the real world and look visually better than oled panels its worthless to me

    • trekkie

      Yeah you better stick to your cardboard.

      • josh

        …or the Vive, Rift, Or odyssey. You however can stick to your cardboard….

    • Raphael

      You can convert to VR by spray-painting the lenses black.

      • Lucidfeuer

        And get a $1000 ~50° VR headset? Also, joke aside, I don’t think lightfield screen work the same way.

    • NooYawker

      That would be VR

    • dk

      well it can’t do that ….it will sort of work if u cover the lenses
      in the mean time look up the zed mini….it’s not perfect …but pretty neat and not cheap
      https://youtu.be/oBzMSRi-1nY

    • Anthony Kenneth Steele

      You can just put a bag on your head

  • brubble

    Dat FOV tho!

    • Bettie

      Gℴℴgle is giving all people $97/hr to complete easy tasks on the laptop . Do job only for few hours & enjoy more time together with your loved ones .. Any one can also get this easy work!!last Thursday I got a gorgeous Buick after I been earnin $9382 this six weeks .it’s definitly my favourite-job but you can now not forgive yourself if you don’t get it.!hg911z:⇄⇄⇄ http://GoogleTimeHighestPaidLegitimateJobs/get/pay/$98/per-hr ♥♥v♥♥w♥a♥♥k♥u♥♥a♥♥♥u♥♥t♥♥♥v♥f♥♥♥b♥v♥♥♥o♥♥b♥♥s♥♥♥t♥j♥♥t♥x♥♥♥e♥o♥♥n♥j♥♥k♥♥♥n::::!hg53v:xrp

    • Raphael

      It’s ok so long as your eyes don’t deviate from the center at all.

      • brubble

        Right. Sounds…..awesome?

    • Yoshi Kato

      Yeah, the FOV is a complete let down. I think the technology shows promise, but I probably won’t be an adopter until the FOV is significantly increased.

  • Facts

    This will only take off if they lower the price, If not it will be a bigger fail than google glass and every other so called ar glasses before, It’s better to sell a lot at cheap price than to only sell a few at a expensive price, the more people trying your product the better the success.

    • Michael Slesinski

      it will fail harder than leap magic.

    • dk

      the original glass was 1500 and the enterprise edition they r selling now is 1800 …..and that thing is nothing more than a useless smartwatch for your face

      ….this is multiple times more complex and it can do anything the hololens can plus 6dof controller ….it will be so expensive

  • Lucidfeuer

    The price is in-line with other AR glasses of the same specs proposition…which isn’t saying anything since those are non-products as such.

    • Laurence Nairne

      I think the price is very much including a lot of pressure from their investors to make good on the returns they promised them. If anything I’d say their forecast must be hugely optimistic with a price that low if they’re to break even in the next decade.

      Not to say that makes it a reasonable price for any normal human being to fork out.

  • NooYawker

    Who’s going to buy this at this price point? If they were willing to shell out $1500 for AR glasses they would have already bought the Hololens. Companies that have already implemented AR have much lighter smaller glasses. Even the Chinese police have AR glasses that are actual glasses. They aren’t a premium company, no one outside of techies or people who already bought VR products know who they are. And many of us think they’re a sham. The only real revenues i can foresee for them is to become a patent troll.
    This thing looks like those horrible sunglasses from the 90’s that go over your head instead of your ears.

    • Danilo

      I will buy this thing on day one (after readind some reviews) if the lightfield technology proved to be true. The lightfield is not a simple dual screen setup like hololens. Of course that I have doubts about this lightfield thing, but if its real, I will sell my kidney and throw my money to then

      • NooYawker

        One day I’ll buy an AR device as well. But not any time soon, AR is more difficult that VR to build. I think we’re a few years away from a good commercial device.

    • Doctor Bambi

      $1500 is half the cost of Hololens, it has a better form factor, and from what we’ve been told, more realistic holograms. If Magic Leap market and release whatever this bottom tier device might be, as a fully fledged consumer ready device and have the software to back it up, theoretically it could be a compelling product. Of course their lack of communication with tech leaders and journalists is very concerning. Let Ben from RTVR or Norm from Tested give it a spin. If they’re impressed and on board, that would go a long way to validating the tech.

      And it’s important to keep in mind, most of those other AR devices are solving very specific problems using the least amount of tech possible, whereas ML and Hololens are entire computing platforms with the ultimate goal of replacing basically every digital device you’ve ever used.

      I have to agree with you though, the dork factor on the ML 1 is sky high. I’m not sure bug eyes will ever be in style.

      • Laurence Nairne

        I imagine reality happened to that design goal. Ultimately a nicely designed pair of ski goggles tethered to your belt riding bum bag (fanny pack for Americans) would still send the dork factor into Saturn’s orbit.

    • daveinpublic

      They’re making it just expensive enough to make it worthwhile for the high level execs to fund their golden parachutes. They don’t intend on this succeeding for the long haul. If they did, they’d focus on the ecosystem first.

      • Dawgs4ever

        That’s exactly why they released the SDK and developer tools now, though.. And why they built the Lumin OS. That’s all about building the ecosystem first.

    • Dawgs4ever

      This thing will likely be far more consumer friendly than the Hololens, which has about zero useful consumer content.

  • discus sucks my dick

    3D0 all over again.

    • Michael Slesinski

      what?! did leap magic steal microsofts schematics or something? i am kind of all for another 3d0 scenario, its over due honestly. hopefully the next trip hawkins emerges and delivers us with a new level of immersion (like 3d0 did with NFS.. especially on my virtual-io) for some other genre of games (anything but fucking corny “survival” fps’s please)

  • VirtualRealityNation

    I’ll buy two of these at least. My customers are already willing to have me build them holo-lens content. You have to look at the long game. Personally, I would like to have a third AR device that I can compare advantages and dis-advantages to the Holo-lens and Meta2. If my clients prefer the Magic Leap while I wait for the next Holo-lens 2 device that is what I will develop toward. Customers want better FOV then the Holo-lens1. It’s too early to tell which devices will win the AR market but I like Microsoft and Magic Leap.

  • Michael Slesinski

    hololens will drop its price before this even makes it to market.

    • NooYawker

      Then Magic Leap will be good for something.

    • dk

      u can get a hololens in perfect condition for cheap on ebay…. but also the second version is not far off

  • Smokey_the_Bear

    Can’t wait until these things FINALLY start hitting developers. I’m dying to see a good review done of it. Which should be just a couple months away. Not digging the price tag though. But the consumer version isn’t likely until 2019, which is the same year that Hololens 2 releases.

    • James Cobalt

      The announcement will be in the spring… the launch will probably be much, much later, based on the company’s operating timeline so far.

  • James Cobalt

    Just wait till the M2 comes out! You’ll see!

  • oompah

    VR headset should be like specs

    • Laurence Nairne

      1. This is not a VR headset.
      2. VR headsets should not be like specs, else you struggle providing an immersive experience away from the real world.
      3. AR headsets should be somewhat like specs, but for them to be useful beyond a simple smart HUD, they need depth cameras to read the environment and that requires a larger frame than the standard specs.

  • theonlyrealconan

    I thought i miss read how small the fov is. And they want to charge prosumer pricing? God i hope pimax 8k delivers, or better yet, Rift 2.

  • If they’ll make it at $1000, they could win the competition against HoloLens..

  • motowntom

    Man, I wish I was this Rony guy, I’d be almost ready to head to the Caribbean on my yacht with my lambo and helicopter…. how cool to have been able to swindle some major VC $’s!!!! Do you think VC co.’s hire hitmen?

    • daveinpublic

      This company moves slower than molasses. All the money in the world can’t seem to get them where they need to go.

      • Laurence Nairne

        That’s the problem when you promise your investors things that aren’t technically possible/available yet.

  • AJ_74

    Magic Leap is going to be, like, so cool…

  • Mateusz Pawluczuk

    Pro-sumerish? Didnt see that one coming ;p

  • Dawgs4ever

    I never regretted being an early adopter of the Rift. I’ll likely buy the Leap on Day 1 as well if it’s under $2500.