What happened to the revolutionary Metaverse?

After
the release of “Ready Player One” in 2018, which illuminated the
possibilities of VR, the idea that virtual reality would become a breakthrough
in progress soon really caught on.

Companies
jumped on the bandwagon, investing tons of money in developing this futuristic
technology. Unfortunately for their stakeholders, however, not much profit has
been seen.

For
example, Apple expects to sell only about 450,000 Vision Pro mixed-reality headsets this year,
far below its initial target of 800,000. Microsoft’s much-heralded HoloLens
stopped selling in 2023.

Overall,
what looked like a significant disruption is not performing as well as
anticipated. The same goes for augmented reality. Maybe it’s not the right
time, or is there something else?

It is
difficult to pinpoint a single reason: it is a mix of factors. First,
developing and manufacturing VR/AR hardware and software is neither easy nor
cheap for companies.

When
consumer adoption turns out to be slower than expected, companies, which are
naturally supposed to make money, naturally shift their focus to avoid
accumulating losses in that area.

In
addition to high costs, the lack of demand is mainly due to a lack of
compelling content. It’s as if there were only programming and cooking
tutorials on YouTube: somewhat limited.

However,
the failure of VR/AR is nothing compared to the one of the Metaverse.

A few
years ago, Mark Zuckerberg invested billions in what he hoped would be an
innovation that would rival the Internet’s impact. But as time has passed,
there have been no notable breakthroughs.

Yet
every time the company showed off the product, it was met with derision. What’s
worse, Reality Labs’ revenue in the last 12 months was $2.1 billion, but it
posted an operating loss of $16.7 billion.

No
wonder Meta has cut funding for its Metaverse
hardware and software division by 20%. However, this does not mean they will
completely abandon VR/AR development.

Meta is
still planning to launch new virtual reality headsets like the Quest and
augmented reality glasses like Ray-Ban in the next three years. Let’s hope
these innovations perform better than before, potentially boosting the Meta stock chart.

At the
same time, interest in the Metaverse is fading among cryptocurrency
enthusiasts, which isn’t great news for tokens tied to this sector. As some
say, “No hype, no gain…”

The
takeaway is that not every technology billed as revolutionary will make an
impact. Who knows, AI might even be a letdown for some companies.

This article was written by FL Contributors at www.forexlive.com.