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Meta, Apple, Google, Microsoft gear up for big augmented reality year

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As Facebook parent, 2022 looks set to be the most important year for “the metaverse.” Meta, Apple, MicrosoftAnd GoogleGet ready to launch new products and services in a market that has so far been very niche for early adopters.

Metaverse software and hardware allow you to use virtual spaces and draw in data from the internet. Backers claim that the metaverse will eventually be accessible through advanced virtual and augmented realities headsets.

Big tech companies believe that devices that allow users to travel into augmented or imagined worlds are the most lucrative new software market since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007. If the metaverse is successful, maybe everyone with a smartphone will soon have a pair or VR headset.

Eric Sheridan, a Goldman Sachs analyst wrote that large tech platforms have benefited greatly from mobile computing apps and now see augmented reality being the next platform shift. It appears that it will be the next logical shift in consumer patterns and creates new industry leaders, he said.

In order to be ready for their product launch, companies are investing in research and development and preparing themselves for battle.

In 2021, venture capitalists spent $10 billion on virtual-world start-ups according to CrunchbaseThis doesn’t include the spending by Big Tech companies. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the company had spent $10 billion on AR and VR in 2021, which he said was a significant reduction in the company’s profits.

According to Goldman Sachs, these technology development investments will amount to $1.35 trillion in the coming years.

This is where tech giants stand today and next year’s expected releases.

Meta

Facebook’s test of its new Horizon Workrooms remote-working app for its virtual reality Oculus Quest 2 headsets is shown in this handout image obtained by Reuters on August 18, 2021.

Facebook | Reuters

Facebook has a lot to do with metaverse technology. To reflect its new focus, Facebook changed its name from Meta Platforms to Meta Platforms back in 2021.

Meta is ahead of its Big Tech counterparts. It currently manufactures and sells VR hardware and accounts for 75% market share in 2021. according to IDC.

Oculus’ virtual reality app, which requires you to use a Quest 2 headset, was Apple’s top-rated app. It is an inexplicable sign that lots of people got virtual reality gear.

Meta has yet to release sales data for Quest. Qualcomm makes the Quest chip. estimatedBy November, the company had sold 10 million units. Those aren’t smartphone numbers, but they are significant — and boosted by major TV ad campaigns flogging the hardware.

Meta plans to launch another virtual reality headset in the year ahead of its previous one. calling Project Cambria. According to Facebook, the device will be able to display mixed reality, which is using the camera on the headset’s outside to project the real world into the viewers. Meta also claims that the device will have face- and eye tracking. This will improve the ability of the device’s response to users’ commands.

Meta’s first foray into this market allowed it to get a glimpse at the software that users are looking for. It launched Horizon Worlds this month. This social platform allows people to attend movie and comedy nights within Facebook’s virtual universe.

Meta acquired several popular Oculus apps-making companies. most notably SupernaturalThe game of Floating Blocks, where users aim to hit floating blocks with the beat.

Antitrust authorities may be concerned about this strategy. Federal Trade Commission launched an extensive investigation of the $41 million purchase. The Information reported.

Apple

Augmented Reality

Source: Apple

Apple hasn’t confirmed the existence of a headset project, although it has used prototyping methods within its Technology Development Group over many years.

Apple is preparing for the launch of a new major product line. Its newer iPhones come equipped with Lidar sensors, which can measure how far away an object is — critical for location-based applications. ARkit software is available on the iPad and iPhone 4S. This allows app developers to make apps using iPhone’s sensors that allow for accurate room mapping and localization.

These technical building blocks form the basis of a new product. This is expected to be an Apple high-end headset that combines virtual reality and enhanced reality. could be launched in 2022.

Apple does not discuss any new products before they have been revealed, unlike Meta. Apple is expected to release a headset that shakes up the industry and offers a different approach than many of its competitors. This was the case with the iPhone and Apple Watch, which were both smartphones.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will closely monitor the competition to determine which selling points are most significant for their headsets.

How Apple integrates services with content will play a crucial role in the appeal of this device. Apple will launch a virtual reality app store? The Apple headset will have VR-based music or sports content. its purchase of NextVR?

Market analysts and investors are beginning to question whether future sales of headsets and other reality-based gadgets will push Apple stock higher, if the company releases its first major product category in seven decades.

Citi analysts said in December, “Apple’s current value does not reflect new product launches.” With the release of the AR/VR headset, 2022, this will change.

Apple will not call it the “metaverse”, however. “I will avoid buzzwords. It’s just called augmented reality,” Cook said in September.

Google

Alphabet’s Glass is used for manufacturing

Alphabet

Microsoft

The IVAS system is a modified version the HoloLens 2 for soldiers.

US Army

In 2016, Microsoft, a Big Tech firm, introduced HoloLens AR headset. Its current product, however, is not yet a device consumers would wear regularly.

Microsoft instead has invested in “enterprise,” which means selling headsets to companies that are able to pay the $3,500 price tag and who want to know if it makes their workers more productive.

HoloLens’ most prominent client is the U.S. Military. Microsoft was awarded a deal worth $22 billion earlier in the year to supply 120,000 HoloLenses custom to the military to increase their “lethality”. But, this year the Army stated it would. delayA HoloLens field trial will begin in 2022.

It will matter whether or not the deal gets delayed, as it is a signal about the health and future prospects of the augmented real world market.

HoloLens also has piqued interest of medical companiesThese people want to know if Augmented Reality can improve the operating room or help with remote surgery.

Microsoft has invested heavily in cloud services in order to provide the glue that will hold virtual worlds open to the public by 2022.

Mesh was announced by the company in March. It allows software companies to develop apps that enable different devices to access the same digital reality. Mesh is a three-dimensional, 3-D hologram video chat that works in a similar way to a video conference. In 2017, Microsoft was the first to push this initiative. acquired AltspaceVR.

These new metaverse features of software will launch in 2022. Microsoft plans to integrate Mesh into Teams’ videoconferencing software, Teams later in the year. Another natural match is the integration of Mesh into Teams’ videoconferencing app, Teams. with no release date yet. It remains to be determined if AR headsets will improve productivity apps that Microsoft is most well-known for.

CEO Satya Naidella remains enthusiastic.

Nadella declared in November, “I can’t overstate just how significant this is.”

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