Report: Only 6,000 Magic Leap headsets sold over six months

Magic Leap bounded into the augmented reality space as a highly valued tech company. Following the launch of its Magic Leap One Creator Edition, however, the company only sold 6,000 units in the first six months, according to The Information.

What’s going on inside Magic Leap? — The Information’s report reveals that the company sold a tiny fraction of its goal of selling 100,000 headsets in the first year. The report cites a single source for the actual sales total and details how several Magic Leap employees don’t even know the official numbers. The company recently laid off dozens of employees, halted work travel, and slowed its hiring pace, supporting the source’s claim of lackluster revenue.

A Magic Leap all-hands meeting ahead of the report’s publication encouraged confidentiality from employees. In a statement to The Information, the company claimed the article was “littered with inaccuracies and misleading statements.”

Does Magic Leap stand a chance? — Augmented reality devices are still niche products with limited applications. Magic Leap One retails for $2,300, a steep price tag for an evolving medium, and the company is years away from releasing an upgrade.

Magic Leap also put up more than 2,000 patents as collateral to JPMorgan Chase, but despite some board reshuffling, Google still has the company’s back. As Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft walk before they run with their AR projects, the clock is ticking for Magic Leap to remain serious competition.