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Has a huge company ever rebranded themselves like this to a dream that they're so far away from delivering on? The Metaverse isn't an unfamiliar or abstract thi

Has a huge company ever rebranded themselves like this to a dream that they're so far away from delivering on? The Metaverse isn't an unfamiliar or abstract thing, it's well represented in movies and TV, and it's a pretty dramatic territory to claim: full sensory immersion in an infinite, interactive world. No one has gotten even a fraction of those things "right" and a social media company is gonna bet the farm on it because they bought a company that made VR goggles?

randycupertino 5y ago
> Has a huge company ever rebranded themselves like this to a dream that they're so far away from delivering on? Theranos, when they pivoted from a medication-delivering patch to a blood testing analytics company. Neither of which they ever actually had the tech for!
mrkramer 5y ago
I think VR/AR Metaverse will happen but it is decades away.
- handrous 5y ago
  Most major tech companies seem to be betting that non-shit AR glasses aren't far off, and are prepping to be ready for that day 1. Big VR bets makes less sense to me. AR is the next smartphone. VR is the next... TV or workstation monitor, and even then, only for some use cases. Just seems like a much smaller opportunity.
  - shock-value 5y ago
    Are you implying that their interest suggests that non-shit AR glasses will actually happen in the relatively short term? Big tech companies were and ostensibly are interested in self-driving too, and that seems to be taking much longer than they expected.
    - handrous 5y ago
      They all keep announcing AR features for their devices and operating systems, even though those are very niche except as a "gee isn't that nifty" demo on current hardware—anyone who's held a phone or tablet or Gameboy or whatever up to interact with these things can attest it's pretty terrible overall UX, even if it's really cool as a demo. Glasses fix that problem. I assume the reason companies are continuing development of those capabilities is that they're pretty sure AR glasses aren't too far off. Seems like a much more tractable problem than self-driving, anyway—mostly a waiting game for battery and display/input tech to hit just the right spot and for someone to package it just right, like smartphones were.
  - mrkramer 5y ago
    VR is the next PC. "VR headset in every home" could be the next Microsoft like company mission and vision. I think for instance VR will have big impact in medicine and education but like I said it is decades away something like PC industry in 1970s.
    - handrous 5y ago
      Right, but my point is that the PC is kinda niche, itself, as a consumer product. "The next PC" is a very different prospect—and far more B2B—than "the next smartphone". It could still be pretty big, but it's always seemed to me like a weird place for Facebook, especially, to be investing. Best-case you also become "the next video game console", but consoles (+TVs) are so much more (locally, IRL) social than PCs that I wouldn't bet on that working out. Worst-case, companies focusing more on AR also crack the problem of making their glasses function for VR, and you can throw all your VR-only hardware investment in the trash (though some of the software would be salvageable, I assume).
    - pessimizer 5y ago
      VR is the next 3D TV. A cumbersome, marginal improvement on something that already works fine. Even for industrial use, its only cases I've heard about have been to transmit manual labor over a network. There are very limited cases where we need to do that, although I have no doubt that VR will be useful for undersea or outer space welding, or something, with a very skilled operator. Otherwise, the accuracy necessary is going to make the machine (at the endpoint) far more expensive to build and maintain than it is to just send the human. edit: It'll be good for killbots. They'll be largely autonomous other than Tesla autopilot-style nudges. The work doesn't require a lot of accuracy, and there are still a few social hangups about totally autonomous killing machines that would make an operator in a VR set more acceptable, even if they don't have much to do.
      - tailspin2019 5y ago
        > VR is the next 3D TV. A cumbersome, marginal improvement on something that already works fine. I think it's always worth considering the timeframe with these sorts of things. Right now, yes, you're probably right. But in 5, 10, 20, 50 years? I see widespread VR/AR (especially AR) as being inevitable at some point in the future. But we still have a long way to go. It could still tangibly be decades away before the technology evolves into the right "shape". Even with the current generation of VR hardware we're still looking at the equivalent of Charles Babbage's difference engine and trying to predict the iPhone from it.
lalos 5y ago
I think Zuck is aware that they are a dying company (with a lot of cash and a cash cow) and instead of being a sitting duck they are embracing the "move fast, break things" and picked an un-exploited market (that involves hardware - to own the whole stack) and run with it. They still have the nuclear option anyways, it fails, they revert and Zuck leaves and becomes part of the board, keeping soft control of whoever yes-man from the c-suite gets the CEO position.
codezero 5y ago
The one thing they might have done that is closer to a metaverse than just immersion though: creating a completely digital economy, where work inside the metaverse has value based on creating within the metaverse. Facebook has nailed the economic walled garden, so may have some good ideas for digitalizing people's work using VR/AR as a starting point.
- ketzo 5y ago
  This is exactly it, IMO. People are so focused on the VR/AR/"immersion" aspect of the whole metaverse concept – rightfully so, given the Meta keynote – but there's much more to an actual metaverse than some cool goggles/glasses. If the point of a true metaverse is a persistent, always-on, digital universe that exists parallel to our own, it seems like the company that defined "social media" is well-positioned to define that universe as well.
me_me_mu_mu 5y ago
I hope society improves to the point that we are comfortable just being around each other IRL, instead of needing to escape to a simulated world in our _sonas.
dresdenfire 5y ago
Apple with iPhones? Steve jobs made mobile apple first priority when he came back and started with ipod but ended up capturing the market.

randycupertino 5y ago

> Has a huge company ever rebranded themselves like this to a dream that they're so far away from delivering on? Theranos, when they pivoted from a medication-delivering patch to a blood testing analytics company. Neither of which they ever actually had the tech for!

mrkramer 5y ago

I think VR/AR Metaverse will happen but it is decades away.

handrous 5y ago
Most major tech companies seem to be betting that non-shit AR glasses aren't far off, and are prepping to be ready for that day 1. Big VR bets makes less sense to me. AR is the next smartphone. VR is the next... TV or workstation monitor, and even then, only for some use cases. Just seems like a much smaller opportunity.
- shock-value 5y ago
  Are you implying that their interest suggests that non-shit AR glasses will actually happen in the relatively short term? Big tech companies were and ostensibly are interested in self-driving too, and that seems to be taking much longer than they expected.
  - handrous 5y ago
    They all keep announcing AR features for their devices and operating systems, even though those are very niche except as a "gee isn't that nifty" demo on current hardware—anyone who's held a phone or tablet or Gameboy or whatever up to interact with these things can attest it's pretty terrible overall UX, even if it's really cool as a demo. Glasses fix that problem. I assume the reason companies are continuing development of those capabilities is that they're pretty sure AR glasses aren't too far off. Seems like a much more tractable problem than self-driving, anyway—mostly a waiting game for battery and display/input tech to hit just the right spot and for someone to package it just right, like smartphones were.
- mrkramer 5y ago
  VR is the next PC. "VR headset in every home" could be the next Microsoft like company mission and vision. I think for instance VR will have big impact in medicine and education but like I said it is decades away something like PC industry in 1970s.
  - handrous 5y ago
    Right, but my point is that the PC is kinda niche, itself, as a consumer product. "The next PC" is a very different prospect—and far more B2B—than "the next smartphone". It could still be pretty big, but it's always seemed to me like a weird place for Facebook, especially, to be investing. Best-case you also become "the next video game console", but consoles (+TVs) are so much more (locally, IRL) social than PCs that I wouldn't bet on that working out. Worst-case, companies focusing more on AR also crack the problem of making their glasses function for VR, and you can throw all your VR-only hardware investment in the trash (though some of the software would be salvageable, I assume).
  - pessimizer 5y ago
    VR is the next 3D TV. A cumbersome, marginal improvement on something that already works fine. Even for industrial use, its only cases I've heard about have been to transmit manual labor over a network. There are very limited cases where we need to do that, although I have no doubt that VR will be useful for undersea or outer space welding, or something, with a very skilled operator. Otherwise, the accuracy necessary is going to make the machine (at the endpoint) far more expensive to build and maintain than it is to just send the human. edit: It'll be good for killbots. They'll be largely autonomous other than Tesla autopilot-style nudges. The work doesn't require a lot of accuracy, and there are still a few social hangups about totally autonomous killing machines that would make an operator in a VR set more acceptable, even if they don't have much to do.
    - tailspin2019 5y ago
      > VR is the next 3D TV. A cumbersome, marginal improvement on something that already works fine. I think it's always worth considering the timeframe with these sorts of things. Right now, yes, you're probably right. But in 5, 10, 20, 50 years? I see widespread VR/AR (especially AR) as being inevitable at some point in the future. But we still have a long way to go. It could still tangibly be decades away before the technology evolves into the right "shape". Even with the current generation of VR hardware we're still looking at the equivalent of Charles Babbage's difference engine and trying to predict the iPhone from it.

lalos 5y ago

I think Zuck is aware that they are a dying company (with a lot of cash and a cash cow) and instead of being a sitting duck they are embracing the "move fast, break things" and picked an un-exploited market (that involves hardware - to own the whole stack) and run with it. They still have the nuclear option anyways, it fails, they revert and Zuck leaves and becomes part of the board, keeping soft control of whoever yes-man from the c-suite gets the CEO position.

codezero 5y ago

The one thing they might have done that is closer to a metaverse than just immersion though: creating a completely digital economy, where work inside the metaverse has value based on creating within the metaverse. Facebook has nailed the economic walled garden, so may have some good ideas for digitalizing people's work using VR/AR as a starting point.

ketzo 5y ago
This is exactly it, IMO. People are so focused on the VR/AR/"immersion" aspect of the whole metaverse concept – rightfully so, given the Meta keynote – but there's much more to an actual metaverse than some cool goggles/glasses. If the point of a true metaverse is a persistent, always-on, digital universe that exists parallel to our own, it seems like the company that defined "social media" is well-positioned to define that universe as well.

me_me_mu_mu 5y ago

I hope society improves to the point that we are comfortable just being around each other IRL, instead of needing to escape to a simulated world in our _sonas.

dresdenfire 5y ago

Apple with iPhones? Steve jobs made mobile apple first priority when he came back and started with ipod but ended up capturing the market.