People expected big changes after the release of the Apple Vision Pro, and some are visibly disappointed. Apple tends to have a big effect on the mainstream, lots of people seem to think that they invented the smartphone, when the iPhone came out I was using my third smartphone.
XR technology has been commercially available for 30 years, it tends to progress in the same way that people go bankrupt: gradually, then suddenly.
We’re seeing some pretty interesting gradual changes, particularly in terms of software platforms. The Apple partnership seems to really have pushed Unity into high gear, they’re releasing a lot of resources, both on the editor side and on the design side. Sadly some of the best stuff is reserved for paying customers, and it’s pretty expensive.
This seems to also have changed the thinking on the Sony (with the opening up of PSVR2 to PC users) and Meta. In just a few days Meta announced a radical opening up of their efforts.
First of all they announced a new educational project, which will probably increase the demand for the kind of work we do quite a bit. The fundamental problem is that they keep using the “metaverse” word, and quite a few people have a very negative reaction to it. The concept is really not that clear, but the educational uses of VR are real, hopefully if there is an educational sales push it will also benefit us.
The most important announcement is the opening up of their operating system. It will be possible to buy compatible headsets from other manufacturers, which should keep prices affordable without selling hardware at a loss, and even more importantly they’re opening up the app store. Multiple stores will be available, which could several important advantages. We could have a cross-platform cultural heritage app store which encourages reuse. Or more prosaically, maybe I could use some of my SteamVR purchases.
Zuckerberg is explicitly aiming at providing the Windows of the XR market. At the same time, these changes should make them entirely Digital Markets Act compliant.
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