What’s happening
Facebook parent company Meta reportedly no longer plans to release AR glasses in 2024, has given up plans to release a smartwatch and will market its Portal video chat devices as devices for companies, not consumers. The company said it still plans to roll out wearable wrist devices and AR glasses.
Why it matters
The change in business strategy means that consumers will probably have to wait longer for these wearable devices, and this highlights some of the challenges that Meta faces while spending billions of dollars on the metaverse.
Facebook parent company Meta is betting on the metaverse, virtual worlds in which it wants people to work, play and socialize. But a series of reported product cancellations suggests it will be some time before the bet pays off.
Meta has given up plans for 2024 to release its first version of augmented reality glasses and will instead focus on a second version of the glasses, according to The Information, which also quoted a note to employees and people familiar with the matter. Meta is also pausing the development of a dual-camera smartwatch, opting to work on other devices on hand, Bloomberg reported. In addition, the company plans to market its Portal video chat devices for companies with remote workers, not for consumers, the reports said.
The delays mean consumers will likely have to wait longer than expected for Meta’s home wearables, and highlights the challenges the company faces as it focuses more on consumer devices. Wearable devices such as smartwatches and AR glasses, which have yet to become ubiquitous as smartphones, are key to how Meta expects people to enter the metaverse. Although Meta has created billions of dollars worth of advertising business and the world’s largest social network, it does not have the reputation for hardware development that Apple or Samsung have.
“A lot will depend not only on technology [Meta brings] to the market, but overall consumer acceptance will be driven by other companies as well, “said Jeremy Goldman, director of retail marketing and briefing at Insider Intelligence. Apple is rumored to be working on that. AR / VR headphonesalthough analysts don’t expect the company to release the product this year.
Meta’s chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth, who oversees the company’s hardware projects, announced on Thursday that Meta still plans to release hardware, such as wearable wrist devices and AR glasses.
“The road to revolutionary products is not a straight line,” he said tweet. “As is common in our industry, we replicate multiple prototypes in parallel and change resources as we learn.”
Meta did not respond to a request for comment.
Here’s what you need to know about Meta’s consumer hardware efforts.
What do glasses, smart watches and video chats have to do with the metaverse?
Years before Facebook renamed itself Meta, the company had already set out to look at what could come after the mobile internet.
In 2014, the social media giant spent at least $ 2 billion on the purchase of the virtual reality headset manufacturer Oculus and talked about a future in which people will be able to experience great life events, such as the first steps of a baby, without being there in person. .
However, creating a metaverse involves more than just connecting VR headsets and encompasses multiple ways in which people enter and exit virtual worlds.
“You will go through these experiences on a variety of devices – augmented reality glasses to stay present in the physical world, virtual reality to be fully immersed and phones and computers to jump from existing platforms,” said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a letter to the founder. the company announced a name change in October 2021.
What devices has Meta released?
In addition to releasing VR headphones, Meta also has a line video chat devices called Portal.
In 2021, the company released its first smart glasses, in collaboration with Ray-Ban. The glasses allow people to take photos and videos, as well as listen to music. Zuckerberg then said that smart glasses are “an important step towards the future when phones are no longer a central part of our lives.” They do not, however, include augmented reality.
Meta has not publicly confirmed that it plans to release a smartwatch in 2024, but Bloomberg reported that the product includes activity tracking, music playback, messaging and a camera so users can take photos.
Last year, Meta introduced some of them joint-based technology who could sense your neural signals and track your intentions. I Meta also opened her first physical store in May to present its VR headsets, smart glasses and Portal video chat devices.
Do consumers buy these devices?
Meta has not revealed how many people use its VR headphones, smart glasses and video chat devices, but the company is losing money due to its metaverse ambitions. In the first three months of this year, Meta’s metaverse business Reality Labs lost $ 2.96 billion, Meta said in a earnings report.
The information revealed that research firm IDC estimates that Meta Portal video chat devices make up less than 1% of the global market, behind Amazon Echo and Google Home products. Consumers started buying more Portal video chat devices during a pandemic, but not enough to make devices mainstream. IDC estimates that the company shipped 600,000 Portal devices in 2020 and 800,000 in 2021, an increase of approximately 30% over the previous year.
In April, Zuckerberg told investors that he did not think that the company with the metaverse would be profitable for a long time. He sees the Meta investment in building these devices as part of laying the groundwork for the 2030s, when Zuckerberg expects VR and AR to be “more established as a primary computing platform”.
Why is Meta now delaying the release of some of these devices?
Bloomberg reported that the delays were probably due to Meta’s efforts to reduce costs. In May, Meta confirmed to Reuters that Bosworth had told employees that the company could no longer afford to do some projects and planned to postpone others.
Companies on social media expect challenges when it comes to investing dollars in advertising, which make up the bulk of their revenue. The war in Ukraine, for example, encouraged some advertisers to pause advertising campaigns, and Apple’s privacy changes meant that advertisers had to do more to assess the effectiveness of their marketing, with less consumer data. Last year, Apple has announced a new feature this requires people to opt for apps that collect their data, a move that Facebook has fiercely criticized, which the change is said to do to harm small businesses. Apple said the change gave users more control over their data.
There are other challenges that Meta is struggling with. The social network encourages people to post more videos because it competes with rival TikTok, but Meta does not earn as much money from short video ads as on other products.
“The goal was clear about the fact that its focus is now on two primary goals: growing and monetizing short videos and building its part of the metaverse,” said Mike Proulx, vice president and director of research at Forrester. “The company’s moves around the Portal are just another signal that Meta is giving up everything that will take away the resources of his northern star.”
Meta is not the only company on social media that is looking to reduce costs. Snap, which also launched consumer devices such as smart glasses and selfie drones, cut expectations in terms of revenue and earnings in the second quarter. In addition to Apple’s privacy feature, Snap said it is facing rising inflation and interest rates, a lack of supply chain and other challenges. Meta, like Snap, is reportedly slowing employment.