Despite criticisms that continue to circle its Metaverse plans, Meta has laid out its vision for the future of AR and VR at the company, with its Reality Labs group recently presenting an updated roadmap to its staff. At this stage, some of the notable milestones Meta has achieved include:

  • The next stage of its smart glasses, with a heads-up display element, released in 2025.

  • Its first fully-fledged AR glasses to be released in 2027.

  • A more powerful Quest 3 headset will be launched later this year.

  • Its photorealistic Codec avatars are also getting closer to launch (facilitated by more powerful VR headsets).

Metaverse Still On

AR has proven that it can be a huge opportunity, and despite still being quite some time away from full realization, it’ll be interesting to see how meta looks to promote and showcase its AR glasses, and whether or not it can truly be the pioneering marketer of fully-integrated, AR-enabled eyewear, which could see it gain quite the initial advantage.

Snapchat is also developing its own version of this – Spectacles. Meanwhile, Apple is also developing its own AR glasses but has thus far not been able to come up with one that’s consumer-friendly and unintrusive that can overlay digital elements on your view. As many have postured, it can be a major opportunity – though it still feels like an aside to the broader Metaverse that Meta has been touting ever since its big rebrand (from Facebook).

So far, the Metaverse has been primarily focused on VR elements, with its most recent promotional clip showcasing that it’s also shifting this focus to AR, which might just change the direction of the company’s strategy, before leading into the next stage. By highlighting AR, which has proven to have more practical, real-world usage, that could act as a gateway for the theoretical next level. Perhaps due to all the negative backlash about its VR space, Meta’s now turning to AR development as a focus instead. Meta’s also planning to release its Quest 3 headsets later this year, which could also be a big element.

That ideally will help spark a more gradual adoption of its VR experience. While it still feels like it’s a way off becoming a thing, gradual development steps like this are key to building towards that next stage and getting more people to spend more of their time in the VR world.

The Wrap

Meta’s Metaverse push has been roasted by many, with the visuals still looking pretty basic despite the company supposedly investing billions into the project. However, Meta has also repeatedly stated that it could take a decade for the Metaverse to fully take shape, so while it isn’t there yet, the building blocks are at least being set in stone.

Sources

http://bit.ly/3KPQSfh