There’s been a fair amount of angst over #Meta’s recent decision to shut down its #Spark AR studio - a tool and set of technologies for creating mixed reality experiences. This has left a number of developers in the lurch, and created a lot of bewilderment.
Seems to me this move needs to be taken in context. Recent info coming out of Meta:
(1/5)
#ar #vr #mr #wearablecomputing #wearables #augmentedreality #mixedreality #arloboston #avp #applevisionpro #visionos
- Meta’s reality labs lost $4.48 billion
- Meta canceled high-end #Quest Pro 2 Mixed Reality headset, its alternative to the Apple Vision Pro
- While the Quest 2 and 3 have been relatively successes, total revenue is tiny compared to other divisions, #HorizonOS remains glitchy and unpolished, and Quest users do not leverage Meta’s other products, especially advertising
(2/5)
- Meta’s Ray-Ban #smartglasses have smashed sales expectations, so much so that Meta invested in Ray Ban’s parent company, and provide great synergy with Meta’s other products
Taken together, I believe Meta has recognized that MR hardware and software is expensive to develop, that they’re not positioned to create a successful ecosystem, and that even success in this field would leave them at the low end of a market that provides them no synergies with their core business of advertising. (3/5)
Arlo.Boston