Can Apple save the Metaverse?

[NancyDeep]

Media recently wrote that before Apple released the long-rumored Reality Pro headset, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the Meta Quest 3, the company's first consumer MR Headset, will go on sale this fall for $500. The meaning of Meta photobomb Apple is very obvious, the concept of meta-universe that has passed will not die out, and may shine again.
At the end of October 2021, Zuckerberg, the co-founder and CEO of Facebook with a Meta universe dream, officially announced that he would change the company's name to Meta. The new name Meta is taken from the word Metaverse, meaning metaverse.
A month later, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates wrote in a blog post that within two or three years, he believes most virtual conferences will transition from a two-dimensional video grid to a three-dimensional meta-universe with digital avatars. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft announced that it would buy video game giant Activision Blizzard for $70 billion, saying that the deal would provide sufficient resources for the meta-universe. But after that, interest in the meta-universe suddenly stopped. Investors in the technology industry have turned their attention to new trends such as artificial intelligence. Despite the initial enthusiasm, companies such as Disney and Microsoft have discontinued some metacomes.
At Apple's upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference, the tech giant is expected to unveil its virtual reality hardware product: a high-tech headset that blends the digital and real worlds. Apple is betting it can use mixed reality products to attract consumers better than Meta. Meta's high-end Quest Pro headset has been underwhelming since its launch, and Apple could ignite mainstream consumer interest in virtual reality devices in a way that no other company has. According to current and former employees familiar with Apple's development plans, the Apple headset, which looks similar to ski goggles, is expected to cost $3,000.
Apple has done this before. Eventual hits such as the iPod, iPhone, and Apple Watch started in niche markets and later developed into mainstream products. But even Apple executives are skeptical about the company's prospects in virtual reality. Virtual reality, they say, may not be ready for its mainstream moment. Apple has so far declined to comment on the report.
For many investors, the idea of an immersive, all-encompassing online world makes more sense as people are forced to stay home during the pandemic. According to data compiled by PitchBook, metaunion-related startups raised about $660 million in venture capital in the first five months of 2023, down sharply from the $2.93 billion raised in the same period in 2022. PitchBook said the decline cuts the metaverse's recent start-up investment to about a quarter of its peak in the first half of 2022. Doug Creutz, an analyst at Cowen & Company, said the meta-universe investment craze - which comes and goes - is now focused on artificial intelligence. The former fans of the metaverse have long since changed their stance.
This year, Microsoft shut down AltspaceVR, a virtual reality world it acquired in 2017. The company also laid off some employees who worked on the HoloLens mixed reality headset, and canceled or reassigned teams that had been working on the metaverse project, according to people familiar with the matter. However, Microsoft said in a statement that it remains committed to the meta-universe and that it is rolling out 3D avatars for Microsoft Teams. Disney also laid off about 50 employees who had worked on the Metaverse project, according to people familiar with the matter.
As far as Meta is concerned, Zuckerberg's restructuring plan around a metaverse is costly. Meta's hardware division, Reality Labs, including its Oculus headset, has been a big part of Meta's spending increase in recent years. The division lost about $4 billion in the first quarter of this year. Zuckerberg warned that building the meta-universe would be a money-losing proposition with little promise of early returns, much longer than he expected. In recent months, while Zuckerberg has bristled at the suggestion that the meta-universe is no longer his focus, he and his assistants have indeed spent more time talking about Meta's expertise in artificial intelligence.
Ashley Zandy, a spokesperson for Meta, said: "We've always been clear that our vision for the meta-universe is long-term, and that hasn't changed. We are committed to the meta-universe vision and have seen good momentum. Not long ago, before Apple, Meta officially announced that its first consumer MR Headset Meta Quest 3 will be released in the fall of 2023, with a 128GB pricing of $499.99. To date, consumers have spent more than $1.5 billion on apps and games in Meta's Quest App Store.
For Apple, its new headset could be the start of a long-term plan to eventually bring a more popular virtual reality product, like a lightweight pair of glasses, to the market. Some analysts have suggested that Apple could take an experimental approach, evaluating how early adopters are using it and then making changes before marketing future versions to a wider audience. This is similar to what happened with the Apple Watch. The product was initially marketed as an iPhone accessory, but has since been redefined as a fitness device.
Despite the waning enthusiasm, many still believe that the metaverse will not die out completely. Long before Meta promoted the meta-universe, several companies were promoting the technology, such as Roblox and Epic Games, and these companies remain committed to their long-term vision. Matthew Ball, a venture capitalist, has written a book about the metaverse. Mainstream attention to the concept after Facebook's rebrand spurred outlandish predictions about whether people would spend time in an immersive online world, he said. It's more a matter of schedule mismanagement, Bauer said. The intense focus on the meta-universe for a short period of time, which some believe is here now, or will be here soon, is bound to disappoint many.
With tens of millions of participants, user-generated content, and a digital economy, Roblox and Epic Games, the developer behind Fortnite Royal, can offer a more compelling vision of the meta-universe. Roblox, a platform with millions of games often aimed at children, had 66.1 million daily users in the first quarter of 2023, up 22 percent from a year earlier. Craig Donato, the company's chief business officer, said Roblox is working to expand into other immersive online experiences, but a full-fledged meta-universe is still far off. "We're still very much in the beginning stages," Donato said.
In March, Epic Games released new tools designed to help Fortnite players create their own games on the platform and make money from them, giving a boost to the creation of Fortnite's online economy - a cornerstone of the metaverse vision that CEO Tim Sweeney has touted. Sweeney says that mainstream interest in the meta-universe has attracted people who aren't really interested in the field.
A lot of people try to follow this trend without actually delivering on their promises, he said. But if you look at the trend, it continues to grow, and it looks like it continues to grow exponentially.

[tommynine]

Apple has a track record of entering niche markets and transforming them into mainstream successes so that's the only one company who could save it. And Elon ofc