![]() ![]() Gaming remains the key driver for VR technology, and really, the only widely proven use case thus far. The question very much remains: What will most people actually want to do with a virtual reality headset?įor Meta, there was at least one answer: Play games. Increasingly offering products untethered to the average consumer’s needs, the tech industry has been dwelling in La La Land. Technology and the Internet Column: How tech is changing L.A. “The most perfect headset demo reel of all time is still just a headset demo reel,” he wrote. The Verge’s Nilay Patel praised the next-level resolution and computing power, the seamlessness of the experience - but still asked what it might all be for. Reviews of the Vision Pro have echoed precisely this point - they’ve been positive on the specs, but mixed on the application. There simply isn’t much to do with Apple’s Goggles, and at $3,500 not a lot of people are going to buy it just to tinker around.” And yet, although he expects the Vision Pro to flop initially, he thinks its technical breakthroughs might matter a decade from now. “In the near-term, I think it won’t do any better than the Oculus/Meta Quest. “I’m of two minds about this headset,” he told me. I put the question to David Karpf, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University and the author of a newsletter called The Future, Now and Then, who has paid special attention to the development of headset technologies. Apple must genuinely believe that there’s a future in headset computing, and that it looks nothing like the failed fantasies of the metaverse thus far. It can’t just be about sunk costs - Apple has killed costly internal projects before, rather than ship an unpopular and potentially unsuccessful product. Why would the undisputed king of the hardware space want to wade into this territory at all? No amount of weird 2000s-style Wii graphics featuring Zuckerberg and the Eiffel Tower could change that, it turned out. Another poll found that, of those who knew what it was, many more were afraid of what it portended for society than were excited by it. After all the relentless promotion and tens of billions of dollars invested, only 1 in 5 Americans could even correctly identify the term. ![]() No one really showed up to Meta’s chief metaverse attractions, despite the relentless hyping by Zuckerberg and venture capital evangelists, and digital ghost towns were left in their stead.Ĭompanies that had rushed to appoint chief metaverse officers in 2021 had quietly dissolved the divisions by 2023. In fact, the circus left town before anyone could even stake down the tent. Facebook’s launch demo was so scattershot that when it was over, no one was quite sure how it was all even supposed to work. And that we’d experience it with other denizens of the metaverse - virtual officemates, professional duelists, and friends and family were always just an augmented hallway away. It’s a little fuzzy now, but the metaverse’s key promise was that we wouldn’t browse the web we’d experience it. Now, in theory, one can see the industry appeal of the metaverse why Zuckerberg was so taken by the idea, and why, in what will go down as one of the all-time ‘putting the cart before the horse’ tales in the annals of tech, he renamed his world-historically profitable company Meta and dedicated tens of billions of dollars to making it a reality. This shouldn’t come as a shock, seeing as how spectacularly and completely Facebook’s metaverse ambitions have crashed and burned. Not only did neither Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook nor any of the other executives ever utter the term “metaverse,” their vision of how headset-based computing will succeed was anathema to Zuckerberg’s dream of a connected digital world filled with 3-D avatars, games and co-working. In fact, you could call Apple’s foray into headset computing the anti-metaverse - for better and for worse. You are immersed, you are entertained, and you are very much alone. Unlike other headsets, there are no handheld controllers - you navigate the digital world by looking at the objects of interest and pinching your fingers. ![]() ![]() It’s a high-tech home theater for your face. Its demo was all about watching huge virtual movie screens in your living room and disappearing in beautiful simulated natural environments. This is brand new technology for you, the consumer, to be enjoyed inside Apple’s famous walled garden. Apple’s pitch? This may be virtual reality, but it’s anything but the metaverse. ![]()
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