During the Meta Connect conference Mark Zuckerberg strongly opined his belief that an open, interoperable metaverse built by many different developers and companies is going to be better for everyone. This comes to light after he took a strong stance against Apple’s yet-to-be-announced VR platform during the conference.
He’s quoted as saying to his staff that Meta is in a “very deep, philosophical competition” with Apple to build the future of the metaverse, but now he made that pitch public.
The rebranded parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, presented its ambitious intention to contribute to the creation of the immersive internet of the metaverse last October.
Since then, reports that the FRL Division lost $2.81 billion in Q2 have caused the social media giant’s stock price to decline, its growth to stagnate, and metaverse buzz to fluctuate sharply and subdue, triggering controversy.
Some Web3 developers were afraid about Meta’s contribution to the creation of the metaverse because they thought the social media company would create another “walled garden” or closed ecosystem. However, the company has steadily changed its message to denote a distinct strategy.
The company shared its most recent metaverse developments at the keynote address of the annual Meta Connect conference, including a potent new virtual reality (VR) headset that will act as a further step toward more sumptuous online worlds and interactions.
During his interview, he stated that Apple might harm competing VR platforms if it has as much dominance over its headset as it does over the Mac and iPhone.
In his closing remarks at the Connect conference, Zuckerberg reflected on the history of computing, noting that “in each generation of computing that I’ve seen so far — PCs, mobile — there’s basically an open ecosystem and there’s a closed ecosystem.”
Closed ecosystems “concentrate on tight control and integration” and these platforms in the end take the lion’s share of the value produced, remarked Zuckerberg.
In other parts of the keynote speech, Meta made a number of disclosures that seem to indicate continued development of the hardware and software necessary to realise its vision for the metaverse.
Today, Meta said that the company’s current Horizon Worlds VR software will be made available on the web, allowing customers to sign up using a computer or touch-enabled device. That might be an indication that Meta intends to bring its existing VR experience into a multi-platform setting.
In addition, Meta revealed a significant new partnership with software behemoth Microsoft, which will first yield benefits in a handful of critical ways.
Despite opposition to its fledgling metaverse initiatives, it is obvious from today’s presentation that Meta isn’t giving up.
Although Meta’s ambition for the metaverse might not be fully realised for years, some important tech upgrades were presented during today’s speech, which may have altered perceptions of the social media company’s strategy.
Also Read: Apple CEO Tim Cook doesn’t think Metaverse is the Future
