They understand the downsides of being tied to ad revenue more than anyone else. They want to make money from Oculus Store and headset sales, just like Apple does with App Store and iPhone.
Meta is going for the same exact play as Apple did with
smartphones, but with VR.
Appeal-wise... yeesh. Mobile phones and the internet were already very mainstream-popular before Apple launched the iPhone.
VR, not so much. The appeal is extremely niche, and there's really just no demand for it.
Geeks were excited about having computers in their pockets. Literally nobody I know is excited to strap a dorky piece of puke-inducing hardware onto their head outside of limited gaming uses.
I'm getting flashbacks to everyone complaining about the lack of buttons on the original iPhone, and how bulky/heavy it was in comparison to the micro-phones of the era. And how it was less powerful than comparable PDAs of the era.
I guess we'll see how well this comment ages in the same time period.
But that's not what I'm talking about here.
I'm talking about the lack of folks enthusiastic about VR. All of the technologies I just named also had a groundswell of excitement around them; people who saw the promise.
I guess we'll see how well this comment ages in the same time period.
I'm reminded of the "hype" around 3D movies and TVs about a decade ago. Remember how that was going to be the next big thing? 3D Blu-rays and stuff?
But you literally never heard people excited about that tech at ground level. From geeks to normies the reaction was a giant yawn. That's what this whole VR thing feels like.
I’m struggling to think of any aspect of this product—save social—where Apple hasn’t demonstrated marked superiority to Meta over a decade. Software. Hardware. Logistics. Supply Chain. Marketing.
Is the “Social Network” enough to overcome all that? I doubt it.