BREAKING: "Spatial Computing" is still bullshit. Surprise.

I first encountered the term "spatial computing" in a Reddit thread on the topic of VR. My post touched on a theme which should be familiar to anyone who's read any of the other posts on this blog about the subejc: that VR is only good for qualitatively enhancing a limited subset of existing experiences, without enabling anything quantitatively new. In other words, it lacked a strong use case, and would never see widespread consumer adoption until that changed. To quote Palmer Luckey, "No existing or imminent VR hardware is good enough to go truly mainstream, even at a price of $0.00."

One VR defender fired right back, though, declaring my statement to be "simply not true," before going on to list of a bunch of qualitative enhancements to existing experiences like telepresence, social media, and spatial computing, which is defined as "human interaction with a machine in which the machine retains and manipulates referents to real objects and spaces." In VR, specifically, that equates to the use of physical actions in place of other input schemes, i.e. motion controls, which also didn't require VR, and which have stubbornly not replaced other input methods because motions controls suck.

So, spatial computing is pure buzzword salad, describing an input/control scheme that the market has already rejected as being inferior to the keyboard/mouse combination we have already. That hasn't stopped the like of Magic Leap from trying to capitalize on the buzz, though, with VR/spatial computing/motion control vaporware devices that have been perpetually in development for years, now, apparently without ever getting past the prototype stage.

And now the CEO of Magic Leap is stepping down, because of course he is. From VentureBeat:

Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz confirmed he has raised a new round of funding and announced he will step down as the augmented reality company’s top executive.

In a statement, Abovitz confirmed rumors that the company had raised a last-minute round of funding, but he didn’t say where it came from or share the amount raised. The company is pivoting to focus its spatial computing platform on the enterprise market. A week ago, the Information reported that Magic Leap had raised $350 million as a lifeline, just after the company announced it was cutting 1,000 jobs and exiting the consumer business for its Magic Leap One AR headset, which overlays animated images on the real world.

Pivoting to focus of its product from consumers to enterprise is the same as admitting that nobody in their right mind would never spend their own money on this shit, but that Abovitz is still hoping that deep-pocketed corporations might still be buzzword-bullied into doing so. The fact that he just raised a whole bunch of money, while simultaneously laying off 1,000 staff and jumping ship himself, should be all the red flags that any potential investor should need to see before giving Magic Leap the widest possible berth.

Daring Fireball translated Abovitz's corporate-speak into plain English, by the way, with hilarious results:

From a company-wide memo sent by Magic Leap founder Rony Abovitz Thursday:

"As we’ve shared over the last several weeks, in order to set Magic Leap on a course for success, we have pivoted to focus on delivering a spatial computing platform for enterprise."

As nearly everyone has finally realized, our actual technology is nothing at all like what we promised, lied about for years, and sold gullible deep-pocketed investors on. Our con is falling apart at the seams, so we’ll milk the last few dollars out of the only investors dumb enough to give us even more money, by repeating the word “enterprise” and doing that thing with our fingers like Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"We have closed significant new funding and have very positive momentum towards closing key strategic enterprise partnerships."

You’re not going to believe this but we somehow raised another $350 million. I know, right?

"As the board and I planned the changes we made and what Magic Leap needs for this next focused phase, it became clear to us that a change in my role was a natural next step."

Everyone agrees the jig is up.

Solid. Gold.

So... VR isn't a thing, spatial computing isn't a thing, Magic Leap isn't going to be thing, anytime in the foreseeable future... Is anyone still looking to invest in this doomed venture? Because, if they are, I'd really want to know why.