The Metaverse is known to be a divisive concept. Only some know what it means beyond science fiction writers and Mark Zuckerberg. The genius of social media, the man who created a predatory and ruthless paradigm of online social interaction but who practically monopolized the sphere of discourse for a decade, is no stranger to wits.
When Facebook was nothing more than a very interactive web page at the beginning of the Zero years (the era in which the Gmail interface seemed like a technological miracle and Web 2.0 was talked about as if it were the culmination of human evolution ), he sensed before many others that mobile phones had become smart and that this would be the future. In a move that few, very few other companies would have been able to make, it moved all the technology of a website into a smartphone app.
It was thought of as the suicide of the company (at least, those of Twitter and other social networks hoped for it), the worst strategic move of the century, but it wasn’t like that. Indeed, exactly the opposite. And Facebook has become such a social giant, thanks to mobile devices and the pervasiveness of a social network that suddenly always walks with you in your pocket and allows you to message in real-time, upload photos and videos, and know your position. A boon for investors.
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The Change Of Gear For Facebook
Then, Facebook ended up amid privacy scandals. The company understood that it had to change course, and there was also disintermediation from the platforms (the underlying operating systems, such as iOS), which were beginning to resent a social network that was the nose in the life of users. Google and Apple started closing their doors and windows, and Zuckerberg realized he had to do something about it.
That something was a new and different world. A world made of interactions in the environment and in a much more natural way. A world inspired by video games and science fiction imagery and the idea ( widespread throughout Silicon Valley ) that the future replaces our world with a digital one or at least the superimposition of a series of information on the real world. Virtual reality or augmented reality, in short. What Zuckerberg calls a metaverse.
A world free from platforms because going to the Metaverse also means creating an operating system from scratch. Zuckerberg had already tried to make Facebook’s smartphone but needed to go further. With Oculus, he tried to make a platform where he owns both the operating system and the social app. This means that it controls everything and does not risk being cut off by privacy protection choices made by other companies, which cut off access to sensors for location, movement, history, etc.
Metaverse Or Second Life In 3D?
However, Zuckerberg hit his face against the wall. Despite having said that the vision for the Metaverse is ten years from now and that everything must be built and invented, the criticisms of the system are practically daily. People use the first experiences created by Meta. Nobody accepts a vision that resembles a 2.0 version of Second Life in 3D. Only in the gaming world have we started talking about video games that make sense with three-dimensional and immersive graphics.
The rest remained in the background: from 3D movies to apps to hunt Pokemon around the planet. All beautiful, they excited venture capitalists and serial startuppers, but they didn’t produce anything concrete. If you’re running a business, selling clothing or home accessories, and want to know yourself and increase your business, the place to be is still good old Facebook, not the Metaverse. Or Google searches with SEO (which, however, the arrival of ChatGPT has strongly questioned, but that’s a whole other story).
So what happens now? Zuckerberg knows because he certainly knew what Apple was preparing. And what Apple has presented, i.e. the Apple Vision Pro viewer is a tool (for now one. In a while, maybe a year, the non-Pro version will probably also arrive, which will do something less but will also cost much less ) which it does exactly what Zuckerberg hoped augmented and virtual reality headsets, “spatial computing,” could do.
The War Between Apple And Meta
Too bad that in two hours and five minutes of presentation, none of those from Apple has ever pronounced the word “metaverse”. Why? The answer is simple: now there is a real war between Apple and Meta to conquer a remarkable space. The two companies have to convince, with different approaches and technologies, that this thing we can call in many ways makes sense and is worth using. Warning: Apple Vision Pro is a technological prodigy. There is no device like that in any field, commercial, military, industrial, or medical.
However, it is still a character in search of an author. It needs to be given that more people want to buy it, put it on, and use it to do things. To achieve this, the world that Apple promises must be defined. The Vision Pro must tell what an environment looks like that we know to be very familiar and intuitive to use on the one hand (apps common to the Apple ecosystem, super smart commands with gestures, movement of the eyes and fingers, voice), with well-known mechanics (the app store also works in the Apple metaverse) and on the other hand with somewhat sci-fi aspects (facial recognition, sensitive eyes, machine-driven interactions), somewhat complex possible uses.
How To Win The Metaverse War
Let’s remember the technology, of which Apple has said very little (two chips, goggles attached to the eyes, spatial audio, the external battery and little else ) and focus on the uses. What is such a device used for? Aside from the gadget freaks and those just looking for a status symbol to show off to show that they have $3,500 plus tax at their disposal, what is the purpose of such a device? Who uses it, and for what? This phase, which anthropologists call the ” taming of technology “, is the one that will define the possible success of a device that is certainly fantastic in terms of hardware and software but which certainly hasn’t won because it still has to play the whole game. Mark Zuckerberg knows it and is worried because he has already played a piece of the game and is losing sensationally.
Also Read: Meta Accounts: Facebook Accounts Have Had Their Day In The Metaverse
