During the last weeks we have hardly had news of the metaverse , the incipient project of Meta to create a virtual space, accessible through VR viewers, and which aims to be the next great Internet revolution (although some of us are not clear at all). Clearly inspired by the model that Ready Player One showed us, the metaverse aims to advance on the path that Habbo Hotel, Second Life and similar services have already started a few years ago.
At the moment, from Meta we have little more than a declaration of intent , accompanied by some basic elements that the company showed when announcing the metaverse, a few months ago. And after an initial reception perhaps too enthusiastic by a part of the sector, Intel’s statements in this regard served to quell the hype that had been generated around it . And since then, although it is true that we have had the Christmas celebrations in between, radio silence.
We have not had to wait too long for the metaverse to receive its first setback in 2022, even in the form of a rumor, and it is that those of the bitten apple would not be very much for the work of being part of the plans by Zuckerberg . That is what Mark Gurman has ventured not only in his weekly newsletter, but also in his Twitter account .
Lots of interest in my take on “Apple Reality” and the Metaverse https://t.co/ZmacFcOC9k pic.twitter.com/C4SNbFbULp
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) January 9, 2022
« I’ve been told pretty directly that the idea of a completely virtual world where users can escape to – like they can in Meta Platforms / Facebook’s vision of the future – is off limits from Apple ” . Come on, it seems that Apple is not attracted at all by the user experience model proposed by the Zuckerberg metaverse and, consequently, that they do not have them .
This is especially important considering that, as far as we know so far, the “secret” project of Apple’s augmented reality and virtual reality headsets is still ongoing. . And yes, it is true that based on the rumors that point to a particularly high price, it is probably little more than a niche product, yes, but it also has all the potential to become a tremendously aspirational product. And his rejection of the metaverse is not exactly a positive thing for his image.
According to Gurman, his sources speak of how Apple does not like the model proposed by the metaverse, but as soon as we stop to think about it, it is difficult not to see after said hypothetical rejection the bad relationship that, for years They have both technologies , something that began when Steve Jobs was still with us, and that has undoubtedly become chronic. And if there is something that personally gives me goosebumps, it is to think about the privacy model of the metaverse. It would not surprise me if that same concern is recurrent in Cupertino.
The big question, yes, is whether Apple will actively choose to prevent access to the metaverse from its virtual reality viewer or whether, on the contrary, it will simply show itself against said environment. This, of course, will depend very directly on the operation of said viewer , on whether it can act as an extension of the PC or, on the contrary, it will have its own app store and, although it takes advantage of the processing capacity of a computer , do not allow access to the software of the same.