HTC’s Executive Director of Global Marketing for its connected product division, Jeff Gattis, has left the company to join the mysterious Google-back augmented reality company, Magic Leap. The move, which was first reported by UploadVR, comes just months before HTC is set to unleash its Vive VR headset, with which Gattis has been heavily involved, on the market.
In an interview with UploadVR about the move, Gattis explained his rationale behind leaving HTC for Magic Leap:
“I think what struck me so much about Magic Leap was the quality of the technology and seeing how far along it was. I knew there was a great vision but I didn’t know how far along the technology was and how close it is to becoming real and commercial,” he says. “That was the biggest takeaway for me, how it advanced and how quickly it has gotten to the point it is at now.”
We reached out to HTC for comment, and received the following statement:
HTC can confirm that Jeff Gattis has left the Company; we appreciate his contribution to our diversification into connected devices and virtual reality, and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.
To recap, Magic Leap is an augmented reality company that most notably received an initial $542 million in a funding round led by Google in late 2014. The company has remained largely silent on what it is cooking up, but has been opening up a bit more recently, initially showing off a short demo of its tech in March. It’s too early to say what Gattis’ move could mean for either company, but it does hint that we could be fairly close to seeing more from Magic Leap.
Source: UploadVR