The Facebook founder is ready for a fight with Apple. In an interview with The Verge, he said that Apple's upcoming virtual reality platform is going to be worse for consumers because it will be a closed environment.
He has told his employees that Meta is in a competition with Apple to build the future of the metaverse. The future of virtual reality, be it a closed or open environment, isn't set yet.
At the end of his Connect conference talk, which was about an hour and 50 minutes long, he called back to computing history, saying that in each generation of computing that he has seen, there is an open environment. He mentioned Windows, macOS, andAndroid. Although most of that value ends up flowing to the platform over time, he warned that closed ecosystems drive most of the value and profits to the platform owner. That is in contrast to an open environment where the CEO says that more people can share the upside of what is created.
In case there was any doubt as to which type of experience he wanted people to prefer, he concluded his presentation by saying, "I strongly believe that an open, interoperable metaverse built by many different developers and companies is going to be better for everyone." It will be better for Meta if that platform is built by his company.
He said that Apple could hurt other virtual reality platforms if it had as much control over its headset as it does over its products. There is a chance that Apple sees this competition in the future and wants to stop us. Their motives in doing the things that they are doing are not as altruistic as they say they are.
It is not clear how Meta's building will look in the future. Microsoft is one of the partners that builds software for Meta's platform. He said in his interview that he would be willing to work with other companies that are building virtual reality headsets, though he stopped short of committing to bringing his company's metaverse experiences to other platforms. The flagship virtual reality app is only available for Meta Quest headsets, though it will be coming to phones and the web in the future. He said that he would love to work with companies likeSamsung at the right time.
It is not the only CEO who is beating this drum, and it is not the only CEO who has publicly criticized Apple for not supporting the messaging standard. It seems like Apple is right that it and Meta won't be getting along when it comes to virtual reality, in answer to a question about how much of a pain it is trying to send videos to family members usingAndroid, Tim.
Cook didn't seem to think that people would want to do all their work and social interaction in virtual reality. He said in an interview that it was possible to immerse yourself in virtual reality. That can be used well. I don't think you want to live like that.
You can either read the full transcript or watch the whole thing at the top of the page.
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