Google just announced it has teamed up with Magic Leap to offer a wide range of immersive experiences and advance its augmented reality (AR) and extended reality (XR) ecosystems.
The news was released on May 30th on the official X account of Magic Leap. The CEO of the company, Ross Rosenberg, wrote that the “transformative potential of AR is endless and this partnership will help to expand immersive experiences, bring more utility and broaden the reach of AR.”
Magic Leap was founded in 2010 as a tech startup that designs and develops augmented reality systems. ‘Magic Leap 2,’ its head-mounted AR display released in 2022 superimposes 3D computer-generated imagery over real world objects. Google, Alibaba, and AT&T are some of the company’s biggest investors.
The vice president and general manager of AR/XR at Google, Shahram Izadi, also added that the company was excited to merge “Magic Leap’s leadership in optics and manufacturing” with Google technologies to bring a myriad of “immersive experiences to market.”
Though details about the partnership are vague, it appears that Google is entering the metaverse space in a big way. The move signals more competition for Meta and Apple, both of which have been working hard to expand their AR and VR product offerings.
In February of this year, Apple released its AR/VR ‘Apple Vision Pro’ headset for the price of $3,499 a pair. Meanwhile, Meta has taken a different approach that aims to appeal to lower budget customers. Its ‘Quest 3’ headset, released in October 2024, blends VR and mixed reality (MR) for the more affordable price of $499.
Google Wades into Web3 Waters
News of Google’s latest partnership with a company that specializes in augmented and extended reality technologies is huge for the space. It likely signals that the world’s fourth largest company by market cap is headed deeper into Web3 waters and intends to compete with other top companies for its share of the metaverse market.
While Google has been relatively quiet in Web3 compared to its competitors, this isn’t their first we’ve heard from them. At Rarity Sniper, we’ve covered several stories about Google experimenting with Web3 tech. Here are the top headlines from the past two years:
- September 2023. Google to Allow Ads for NFT Games on September 15
- July 2023. Google Changes Policy to Allow Apps with NFTs in Play Store
- April 2023. Google & Polygon Partner to Accelerate Ecosystem Development
- April 2023. Google Offers Cloud Service Benefits to Web3 Companies
- October 2022. Google Cloud CEO Announces Web3 & Metaverse Innovations
- August 2022. Google’s Alphabet Invests $1.5B in Web3 Companies
- May 2022. Google Cloud Announces a Web3 Division
Though Google might not be making as much noise in the space as Apple and Meta, it clearly has a plan for Web3. The latest partnership with Magic Leap gives more insight into the nature of the plan, even though no details about forthcoming products have been released. At Rarity Sniper, we’ll be on the lookout for any updates to the story.