Meta has announced that the company is continuing its development of new projects and technologies for the metaverse. The commitment was given in a blog post by Andrew Bosworth, the CEO of Reality Labs.
Meta and Reality Labs
Meta is the trading name of Meta Platforms Inc, the parent company of Facebook. Facebook Inc. was rebranded to Meta Platforms Inc. in October 2021 to reflect the company’s focus on developing the metaverse. Reality Labs is another business owned by Meta Platforms Inc. Reality Labs produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software. It also incorporates Oculus, the company which developed the Oculus Rift VR headset before being bought by Facebook.
What is the metaverse?
The metaverse is a vision of what the internet might become in the future. It will be a virtual world where you can interact with other people using VR and AR headsets and computers. You will be able to shop, learn and even work there. The film world that people go to in the science fiction novel “Ready Player One” (2011) and the 2018 film based on the novel offer good examples of what the metaverse could look like. As one of the first steps in developing the metaverse, Meta Platforms developed the free virtual reality online video game: “Horizon Worlds.”
New technology
Meta has invested billions of dollars in metaverse-related projects. This has led to Reality Labs making a loss of $9.4 billion in the first nine months of 2022 alone. Some of this money has been spent on developing new VR technology, such as the Meta Quest Pro headset. In addition, Andrew Bosworth revealed that the company has spent about half of its operating expenses on AR technology, such as AR glasses. AR glasses can overlay a display over the real world as you look through them.
The future
The number of people using Facebook on a daily basis is at an all-time high. As a result, Andrew Bosworth said that Meta is committed to staying at the leading edge of AR technology. This is why the company is devoting around 20 percent of its total spending to Reality Labs. Bosworth acknowledged that it would require several more years of development before fully functional AR glasses are on the market. However, Reality Labs is going to improve its avatar system in 2023. The company is also going to continue to develop “Horizon Worlds.”
What we think
The metaverse is still a way off from being a reality — at least for most. “Horizon Worlds” only has between 200,000 to 300,000 users. The system has also been criticized for having bugs. However, it is still relatively early days in the development of such a radical new technology. Given the losses it had suffered, Meta clearly wanted to reassure its investors and users. The commitment to supporting Reality Labs shows that Meta is going to continue to be at the forefront of the development of the metaverse for some time to come.
