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Zuckerberg runs a company beholden to its platform operators: Apple, Google, and Microsoft who dictate online advertising access. Metas investments into VR mak

by bonesss 7mo ago

Zuckerberg runs a company beholden to its platform operators: Apple, Google, and Microsoft who dictate online advertising access. Metas investments into VR make abundant sense as an effort to capitalize on a market where Meta was leading, has mindshare, and owns the platform (Oculus). If the bet paid off, or pays off, it would create a sorely lacking competitive moat and potentially provide Enterprise inroads where Meta is otherwise a non-player. Apple went down the same road, they see the same potential profits. I don’t think either is guilty of contemporaneous dot-com-boom thinking or investments with regard to VR/AR. Carmack was on board, he remembers Pets.com too.

jarjoura 7mo ago
VR was never the endgame though. It was always AR, except, the "metaverse" bet assumed people were going to adopt AR in the same abundance that they adopted phones. It was a cool concept, when you were dreaming it up while taking a shower in the morning getting ready for work thinking about the next big idea. However, it's like those weird Uber/Lyft scooters that popped up in the 2010s. Those things were a cool concept too. However, we got to see right away that it was a terrible business idea for all kinds of reasons. It took Meta several years (decade +) and 10s of billions of dollars and layoffs to realize, AR was a terrible business idea. VR is a fun hobby though, and Oculus definitely owns that space.
- KaiserPro 7mo ago
  > AR was a terrible business idea. I don't think they've learnt that. Orion, the "new" glasses should have shipped in 2020q4.
chris_money202 7mo ago
I always thought the AR/VR plays were just ways to collect human data to train humanoids, similar to what Tesla does with vision and their cars. Would align with recent reports of meta employees watching the videos coming off their sunglasses
mark_l_watson 7mo ago
I have had an Oculus 2 for many years and while I love it, I rarely spend more than an hour or two a month using it because time in VR competes with activities like walking outside getting fresh air and sun on my face or sitting with my wife or a friend having coffee, or spending time writing a book. I think we need more wonderful technology that is designed for brief high-value periods of use. A good example: I get huge value from using AI, but cumulatively I spend perhaps two to three hours a week using Claude or Gemini. Quality products that I appreciate but don't need to spend a lot of time with.

by bonesss 7mo ago

jarjoura 7mo ago

VR was never the endgame though. It was always AR, except, the "metaverse" bet assumed people were going to adopt AR in the same abundance that they adopted phones. It was a cool concept, when you were dreaming it up while taking a shower in the morning getting ready for work thinking about the next big idea. However, it's like those weird Uber/Lyft scooters that popped up in the 2010s. Those things were a cool concept too. However, we got to see right away that it was a terrible business idea for all kinds of reasons. It took Meta several years (decade +) and 10s of billions of dollars and layoffs to realize, AR was a terrible business idea. VR is a fun hobby though, and Oculus definitely owns that space.

KaiserPro 7mo ago
> AR was a terrible business idea. I don't think they've learnt that. Orion, the "new" glasses should have shipped in 2020q4.

chris_money202 7mo ago

I always thought the AR/VR plays were just ways to collect human data to train humanoids, similar to what Tesla does with vision and their cars. Would align with recent reports of meta employees watching the videos coming off their sunglasses

mark_l_watson 7mo ago

I have had an Oculus 2 for many years and while I love it, I rarely spend more than an hour or two a month using it because time in VR competes with activities like walking outside getting fresh air and sun on my face or sitting with my wife or a friend having coffee, or spending time writing a book. I think we need more wonderful technology that is designed for brief high-value periods of use. A good example: I get huge value from using AI, but cumulatively I spend perhaps two to three hours a week using Claude or Gemini. Quality products that I appreciate but don't need to spend a lot of time with.