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AT&T is investing in mixed reality startup Magic Leap and has also formed a product partnership with the Plantation, Florida based company, the duo announced Wednesday. The size of the investment hasn’t been disclosed, nor did the two firms reveal many details about their new partnership, save for saying they’ll be working together on enabling the next generation of computing. The Magic Leap One: Creator Edition that’s set to be released later this year will be carried by AT&T, with the telecom giant presumably being the startup’s only wireless carrier partner whose cooperation the company already teased earlier this year. AT&T’s stores in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco will be the first to receive the Magic Leap One units, with more locations being promised to follow.
The first mixed reality headset from the tech unicorn was already assumed to support mobile connectivity and AT&T‘s Wednesday announcement confirmed as much, with the telecom juggernaut stating its network will be compatible with the upcoming gadget. The Dallas, Texas-based company specifically associated the newly announced Magic Leap project with its efforts to commercialize the fifth generation of mobile networks on a national level by 2020, suggesting some kind of high-resolution streaming experiences may be on the cards. The majority of content Magic Leap provides is still expected to be entirely unique by virtue of the fact no one bar Microsoft truly committed to mixed reality solutions so far and the HoloLens itself is being developed and advertised as a productivity tool and not a product geared toward entertainment, something the upcoming Magic Leap One bundle will certainly be.
It’s still unclear when Magic Leap’s first product will actually become available for purchase seeing how the only currently announced offering from the company that’s set to debut in the coming months will essentially be a developer kit. That didn’t stop the startup from striking a broad range of content partnerships meant to ensure its MR ecosystem starts off on a high note, with one of the most high-profile such deals announced so far being an NBA collaboration announced with the blessing of Shaquille O’Neal.