The man answerable for Magic Leap’s ‘go to market technique’ simply left the corporate

Magic Leap is meant to go on sale in 2018.

Magic Leap is meant to launch its extremely anticipated “blended actuality” headset quickly. However the man who’s answerable for advertising and marketing that headset to the world is leaving the corporate.

Jeff Gattis, the corporate’s VP of product advertising and marketing, who additionally oversees product administration, has left Magic Leap after greater than two and a half years there, Recode has discovered. An organization spokesperson confirmed Gattis’s departure, and stated solely that it was “for private causes.”

It’s onerous to quantify how a lot hype has been constructed round Magic Leap. The corporate has been exhibiting off snippets of what its augmented actuality glasses can do for years, and final December it lastly unveiled the glasses themselves. They’re nonetheless not out there to the general public, although the corporate says they’re due out later this 12 months. When CEO Rony Abovitz spoke at our Code Media convention six months in the past, he didn’t demo the glasses on stage.

Gattis’s departure, then, is fascinating. Whereas Magic Leap’s expertise will play an enormous function — maybe the most important — in its eventual success or failure, advertising and marketing may even matter. Most individuals haven't adopted VR headsets and don't know whether or not they’ll need AR or not — particularly from an organization they barely know.

Gattis describes his function at Magic Leap on his LinkedIn profile as main “the Product Advertising and marketing self-discipline with accountability for product definition, buyer segmentation, and go to market technique.” He has a historical past of serving to launch huge tech merchandise. Earlier than Magic Leap, Gattis ran advertising and marketing for HTC’s “linked merchandise” division, together with its digital actuality headset, the Vive. Earlier than that, Gattis labored at Microsoft, the place he helped launch the Microsoft Floor, based on his LinkedIn profile.

It’s not the primary time Magic Leap has had turnover on the high ranks of its advertising and marketing staff. The corporate handled appreciable turnover in advertising and marketing in late 2016, shortly after bringing in present CMO Brenda Freeman. You'll be able to learn an interview with Freeman right here.