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Mark wants to be able to sell apps and ads on his end-to-end controlled platform, that is it. He missed the boat on browsers and smartphones, so he is aiming f

Mark wants to be able to sell apps and ads on his end-to-end controlled platform, that is it. He missed the boat on browsers and smartphones, so he is aiming for total monopoly of what he believes is the next-big-thing™.

JKCalhoun 4y ago
I'm still skeptical that it is The Next Big Thing. I wonder if Zuckerberg suspects it might not be as well but, hey, Hail Mary!
- sam1r 4y ago
  Then again, however, a 100b size company — like meta —inevitably has to go for moonshots when their primary source of revenue is steadily declining. Seems like he has no choice. Even if it doesn’t work or we’re all skeptical — he better play along and go for it.
  - JKCalhoun 4y ago
    I think you're right, but I disagree that he has no choice — he can find some other “moonshot”. Pushing VR (or AR) seems like something he thinks will play well with the stock holders; and if he is as skeptical as some of us then he's kind of playing them for rubes. Hearing them describe their own product as “Chromebook for the face” just reconfirms my suspicious that this is a doomed product.
- bamboozled 4y ago
  Even if it’s the next big thing you know a better iHeadset will follow months later and be a much better product with less privacy and data theft built in.
  - towaway15463 4y ago
    Except it will have no games, cost $4k and will probably be difficult to port anything to. Great for Apple’s current mbpro market but ignored by everyone else.
    - mlajtos 4y ago
      Apple shipped support for WebXR in iOS 16. OpenXR is pretty good standarď and they would greatly benefit from supporting it. Which I think will happen. (My guess is that Unity (& Blender) will have an on-stage demo when the headset comes out. Unity: “just tick this box and your game will run on Reality Pro”)
    - bamboozled 4y ago
      People will still line up to buy it, probably me included, I'm a super keen Linux user too.
- wongarsu 4y ago
  My bet would be more on AR than VR, and maybe it's not the next big thing but the big thing after the next one. But that's fine for Meta. Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp might all be running out of growth, but they are all big enough that Meta can afford to invest in something that will only pay off in a decade or two, as long as the payoff is big enough. Gaming-VR headsets are just a good way to get the technology into people's hands right now, and iterate on it.
  - rngname22 4y ago
    You can argue that Meta is at the very head of the pack with AR. See this demo of Quest Pro pass-through AR: https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/xvzxj2/new_footage_of_the_quest_pro_and_major_pass/ https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/xvzxj2/new_footage_...
- vkou 4y ago
  It doesn't matter if it is the next big thing, or a large flop. Meta is in trouble, and it needs to do something to retain relevance. This is something, and Meta is doing it.
- ehnto 4y ago
  It's a very different experience to how we currently consume media, and I am not really sure it has mass appeal even with some kind of perfect execution. I am prepared to be totally wrong mind you. It's an incredible tool and way to engage with virtual worlds, but the question we should be asking isn't "Is VR technology good enough" which I think people get stuck on. Really the question is "Does everyone want to be in a virtual world regularly?" and my intuition having spent a good amount of time in VR is that the answer to that is actually no. I love video games, so much so that I even try to make them. I spend many hours playing in virtual worlds, but I very, very rarely want to use VR. I'm the perfect candidate for the technology, and it's honestly mindblowing when I do use it, but it's just not a casual experience. Even if we had the perfect, unobtrusive and lightweight technology, you are still choosing to disconnect from your current environment and spend time fully engaged with a different world in a way that games and TV don't. That can be really exhausting.
  - towaway15463 4y ago
    Personally, I think that both TV and movies are going to be driving VR adoption. The Netflix of VR movies could be huge if they were able to offer the right content. A fully virtual theatre that gets new releases could also be big. The edge that VR had in these areas is that it essentially gives you a private theatre that you can enjoy with your friends and family. Leveraging a social network so that you can deliver notifications like “X is currently watching Y. Click to join” would be big. People already kind of do this with watch parties and discord.
    - Eisenstein 4y ago
      I love VR, but it is terrible for things like watching movies. Imagine sitting on your couch and putting on a movie. How often do you do that? If it is more often than 'once in a while', are you actually sitting and watching it intently the entire timee? Are you eating, or drinking anything, or petting your cat or dog, or snuggling on the couch with your SO or kids? You can't do that with a VR headset on because you can't see anything else at all. If you grab for a glass you have to switch to pass-through mode and back again, or take off the headset. You also can't do anything but look at the screen. It isn't really something that people want to do. Exceptions of course would be to do it with someone remotely, like a friend or a family member -- it is a good way to potentially 'hang out' with people who aren't physically there. But the same caveats apply.
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  He probably believes he has the unique ability to make it the next big thing.
bigmealbigmeal 4y ago
I think this is mixing up the mythology of Zuckerberg with the reality. There's no indication that he is exclusively or even primarily driven by money or power. Go watch any long-form interview with him, such as with Lex Fridman. It becomes rather clear that he wants to be more like how Steve Jobs is seen by the wider public: as an innovator and pioneer, not as a power-hungry moneymaker.
- prox 4y ago
  He isn’t doing a great job at that. I see him as a rather analytical CEO. Nothing of the charisma or clarity of ideas that Steve Jobs had. Steve Jobs was rather ruthless when it came to quality (source : Guy Kawasaki) and no idea how Zuckerberg is irl, but my impression it isn’t favorable. What I am trying to say is, with how Facebook is managed isn’t at all like Apple.
- Raed667 4y ago
  I think you're mixing up the reality of Zuckerberg and his PR.
robertlagrant 4y ago
If we're defining "missed" as "things released by companies while Facebook was growing to 500k MAUs" :D

JKCalhoun 4y ago

I'm still skeptical that it is The Next Big Thing. I wonder if Zuckerberg suspects it might not be as well but, hey, Hail Mary!

sam1r 4y ago
Then again, however, a 100b size company — like meta —inevitably has to go for moonshots when their primary source of revenue is steadily declining. Seems like he has no choice. Even if it doesn’t work or we’re all skeptical — he better play along and go for it.
- JKCalhoun 4y ago
  I think you're right, but I disagree that he has no choice — he can find some other “moonshot”. Pushing VR (or AR) seems like something he thinks will play well with the stock holders; and if he is as skeptical as some of us then he's kind of playing them for rubes. Hearing them describe their own product as “Chromebook for the face” just reconfirms my suspicious that this is a doomed product.
bamboozled 4y ago
Even if it’s the next big thing you know a better iHeadset will follow months later and be a much better product with less privacy and data theft built in.
- towaway15463 4y ago
  Except it will have no games, cost $4k and will probably be difficult to port anything to. Great for Apple’s current mbpro market but ignored by everyone else.
  - mlajtos 4y ago
    Apple shipped support for WebXR in iOS 16. OpenXR is pretty good standarď and they would greatly benefit from supporting it. Which I think will happen. (My guess is that Unity (& Blender) will have an on-stage demo when the headset comes out. Unity: “just tick this box and your game will run on Reality Pro”)
  - bamboozled 4y ago
    People will still line up to buy it, probably me included, I'm a super keen Linux user too.
wongarsu 4y ago
My bet would be more on AR than VR, and maybe it's not the next big thing but the big thing after the next one. But that's fine for Meta. Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp might all be running out of growth, but they are all big enough that Meta can afford to invest in something that will only pay off in a decade or two, as long as the payoff is big enough. Gaming-VR headsets are just a good way to get the technology into people's hands right now, and iterate on it.
- rngname22 4y ago
  You can argue that Meta is at the very head of the pack with AR. See this demo of Quest Pro pass-through AR: https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/xvzxj2/new_footage_of_the_quest_pro_and_major_pass/ https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/xvzxj2/new_footage_...
vkou 4y ago
It doesn't matter if it is the next big thing, or a large flop. Meta is in trouble, and it needs to do something to retain relevance. This is something, and Meta is doing it.
ehnto 4y ago
It's a very different experience to how we currently consume media, and I am not really sure it has mass appeal even with some kind of perfect execution. I am prepared to be totally wrong mind you. It's an incredible tool and way to engage with virtual worlds, but the question we should be asking isn't "Is VR technology good enough" which I think people get stuck on. Really the question is "Does everyone want to be in a virtual world regularly?" and my intuition having spent a good amount of time in VR is that the answer to that is actually no. I love video games, so much so that I even try to make them. I spend many hours playing in virtual worlds, but I very, very rarely want to use VR. I'm the perfect candidate for the technology, and it's honestly mindblowing when I do use it, but it's just not a casual experience. Even if we had the perfect, unobtrusive and lightweight technology, you are still choosing to disconnect from your current environment and spend time fully engaged with a different world in a way that games and TV don't. That can be really exhausting.
- towaway15463 4y ago
  Personally, I think that both TV and movies are going to be driving VR adoption. The Netflix of VR movies could be huge if they were able to offer the right content. A fully virtual theatre that gets new releases could also be big. The edge that VR had in these areas is that it essentially gives you a private theatre that you can enjoy with your friends and family. Leveraging a social network so that you can deliver notifications like “X is currently watching Y. Click to join” would be big. People already kind of do this with watch parties and discord.
  - Eisenstein 4y ago
    I love VR, but it is terrible for things like watching movies. Imagine sitting on your couch and putting on a movie. How often do you do that? If it is more often than 'once in a while', are you actually sitting and watching it intently the entire timee? Are you eating, or drinking anything, or petting your cat or dog, or snuggling on the couch with your SO or kids? You can't do that with a VR headset on because you can't see anything else at all. If you grab for a glass you have to switch to pass-through mode and back again, or take off the headset. You also can't do anything but look at the screen. It isn't really something that people want to do. Exceptions of course would be to do it with someone remotely, like a friend or a family member -- it is a good way to potentially 'hang out' with people who aren't physically there. But the same caveats apply.
squeaky-clean 4y ago
He probably believes he has the unique ability to make it the next big thing.

bigmealbigmeal 4y ago

I think this is mixing up the mythology of Zuckerberg with the reality. There's no indication that he is exclusively or even primarily driven by money or power. Go watch any long-form interview with him, such as with Lex Fridman. It becomes rather clear that he wants to be more like how Steve Jobs is seen by the wider public: as an innovator and pioneer, not as a power-hungry moneymaker.

prox 4y ago
He isn’t doing a great job at that. I see him as a rather analytical CEO. Nothing of the charisma or clarity of ideas that Steve Jobs had. Steve Jobs was rather ruthless when it came to quality (source : Guy Kawasaki) and no idea how Zuckerberg is irl, but my impression it isn’t favorable. What I am trying to say is, with how Facebook is managed isn’t at all like Apple.
Raed667 4y ago
I think you're mixing up the reality of Zuckerberg and his PR.

robertlagrant 4y ago

If we're defining "missed" as "things released by companies while Facebook was growing to 500k MAUs" :D