Google and Magic Leap today announced a “strategic technology partnership.” The move shows that Google is looking to gain ground to keep up with Meta, Apple and others in the race to control the AR headset market.
Although VR headsets have been around for years, none of the world’s major tech companies have launched consumer-focused AR glasses.
But behind the scenes, companies like Meta, Apple and Google are racing each other toward that future — hoping that all-day AR glasses will become as big as smartphones.
Google has had several starts and stops in the XR space. Google Cardboard first appeared in 2014 and introduced millions to a very basic VR experience made by placing a smartphone inside a cardboard viewer with simple lenses.
The company has gotten more serious with Google Daydream, making a more streamlined experience with phones that are specifically certified to work with more advanced smartphones.
And while Daydream ultimately failed, it wasn’t just Google’s fault. The whole concept of VR smartphone viewers just never caught on. A similar Gear VR project by Meta and Samsung had a similar fate. And even the Oculus Go — a low-cost headset that further streamlined the “smartphone VR” experience by building smartphone components directly into the headset — couldn’t make the formula work.
Higher-fidelity virtual reality, with full tracking and motion controllers, seemed to be the way forward, as both PC VR headsets and Meta’s Quest line showed.
But even these headphones have ended up in the eyes of Google, Meta and Apple. Everyone is aiming for a future where reality-altering VR experiences can merge with the real world through lightweight AR glasses that people can wear all day.
While Google continues to build out its ARCore software platform (which allows Android developers to build phone-based AR apps), Google still needs to eventually create a groundbreaking AR platform if it hopes to compete with rivals like Meta and Apple, who are already establishing themselves in AR experiences with devices like Quest 3 and Vision Pro.
Google has made it clear that it intends to build — or at least support — such a device. The company publicly announced last year that it was working with Samsung and Qualcomm on this very issue.
If Google wants to leapfrog the preliminary step of building MR headsets like the Meta and Apple, one of the biggest barriers is the optics challenge. Creating a high-resolution, wide-field-of-view image through something the size of a pair of glasses is an incredible physical challenge that no one has yet cracked.
Optics may be one of the reasons Google has stopped and stopped with its own efforts to create a pair of AR glasses. A major internal project to build such a device, called Project Iris, was halted sometime last year.
Such starts and stops seem to leave Google behind in this race. But the company hasn’t given up yet.
Now its AR headset maker Magic Leap in an effort to provide key technology needed to make a compact AR device. The “multi-faceted, strategic technology partnership” with Google was announced today by Magic Leap, and it very specifically points to optics as a key driver behind the agreement.
Shahram Izadi, vice president and general manager of AR/XR at Google, said: “We look forward to combining Magic Leap’s leadership in optics and manufacturing with our technologies to bring a broader range of immersive experiences to market. By combining efforts, we can foster the future of the XR ecosystem with unique and innovative product offerings.”
Magic Leap’s Chief Technology Officer, Julie Larson-Green, said: “This partnership accelerates the transformative power of AR by combining our extensive optics capabilities with Google’s technologies to continue to develop immersive experiences across the developer ecosystem and for customers. We look forward to expanding the potential of XR – blending the physical world with valuable, contextually relevant solutions.”
Magic Leap had its own starts and stops. But over the course of the company’s fundraising frenzy, near-failure and eventual stabilization, Magic Leap amassed a large number of patents related to XR technology. Their latest headset, the Magic Leap 2, also has one of the widest fields of view in a device of its size with clear optics.
And that’s probably where Google’s interests lie.
Whether it’s adopting a more advanced version of the optics in Magic Leap 2 or going with a new solution that’s been developed and patented by Magic Leap, it looks like Google is hoping to buy a shortcut to market, at least when it comes to optics disturbed.
At this point, it’s still unclear exactly how this partnership will play out, but the limited information we have points in a certain direction: Google may develop its own headset using Magic Leap’s optical technology, but eventually the entire headset may to be produced by Magic Leap.
This will allow Magic Leap to continue its enterprise-focused business while monetizing the consumer AR space that Google and others are trying to make happen.
Still, other strategic plays are possible… Samsung was completely left out of Google’s announcement and Magic Leap – where does it fit into this picture? For now, only time will tell.
