The Clash of the Titans To Come in the Metaverse: Apple vs. Facebook
Who will emerge as the leader in this field of the future?
Apple vs. Facebook. It's the clash of the titans in Tech. This merciless fight will take place in the ring of the Metaverse, a virtual world where anyone can lead a second parallel life via an avatar. A duel between two giants of the Tech industry who weigh, in total, nearly 4,000 billion dollars in the stock market.
The will of these two giants with the Metaverse is the same: not to be swept away by the next technological revolution.
Within the select club of GAFAM, Apple and Menlo Park have taken the lead. Each in its characteristic style. Facebook has landed like a tank in a china store. At the end of October 2021, Mark Zuckerberg's group announced that its empire (renamed “Meta” by the way) was now going to focus on the Metaverse, which the thirty-seven-year-old multi-billionaire predicts will be the “next generation of the mobile Internet”, and that its dedicated investment spending was going to exceed $10 billion as early as… 2021. And this rain of dollars will intensify in the years to come.
On the one hand, Facebook and its 3 billion active users
To become the reference Metaverse with its “Horizon Worlds”, the social media behemoth will rely on its strengths. First of all, its unparalleled audience pool in the world, with nearly 3 billion monthly active users to one of its applications: Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp. Second asset: its virtual reality (VR) headset Oculus, which outrageously dominates the sector, is still in its infancy, with nearly 75% of market share, according to IDC. A product that is intended to be the gateway to the Metaverse of Facebook. The latter has been opened in mid-December 2021 in North America.
For now, the weak signals are positive for “Horizon Worlds”. At Christmas, the most downloaded application in the United States on iPhone was the one allowing the use of the Quest 2 VR headset (sold starting at $299) from Facebook. To push its advantage, the firm is working on a new product in mixed reality (mixing VR and augmented reality) which should be released in 2022.
On the other hand, Apple is the master of time
As usual, Apple is advancing its plans discreetly. Its boss, Tim Cook, even refuses to talk about the Metaverse. “I stay away from buzzwords. We just call it augmented reality (AR),” he told Time in September 2021. “But I'm super excited,” he continued. Tim Cook is not the only one. The tech world has been waiting for a major product launch since 2014. According to several well-informed analysts of the firm, a headset combining AR and VR should be released by the end of the year, or even in 2023. This one is expected to cost close to $3,000, according to “The Information”.
Much too late (and too expensive) compared to Facebook? Nothing is less sure. Master of time thanks to its extraordinary marketing aura, Apple is used to it. Arriving in a sector with a slight temporary delay and higher prices has never prevented it from becoming the leader.
Especially since Apple's DNA is hardware. Apple also has a very powerful distribution network that allows it to sell hundreds of millions of iPhones per year. On the other hand, Facebook is not used to managing huge volumes of products. And nothing says that the headset will be the only entry point to the Metaverse or Multiverses, which can be in 2D or 3D. It may also be through the smartphone, computer, tablet, ...
Markets where Apple is already very well established. Not to mention that connected glasses would also be in the cards of the group. But not everything will be played only on the product aspect.
Apple intends to capitalize on Facebook's biggest weakness: its poor image on privacy
To distinguish itself from Facebook, Apple will be able to play on its very elaborate posture of the white knight of privacy. This necessarily key element, to make everyone switch to a Metaverse, is sorely lacking in Mark Zuckerberg's firm, whose image has been quite damaged by the “Cambridge Analytica” scandal or even the more recent “Facebook Files” scandal. The rebranding of Facebook as Meta is linked to the group's desire to get rid of the bad image associated with its historical name.
Facebook is ahead of the game in terms of communication, as it has to convince the general public of its project, but also third-party partners to work with it to flesh out its virtual world. On the other hand, Apple has built a huge ecosystem of developers on which it will be able to rely immediately to build its Metaverse.
The official presentation of Apple's headset should take place in June 2022, during the WWDC, the traditional annual conference of its developer community. This is not a coincidence.
Other players will join the battle of the Metaverse
However, the battle of the Metaverse may not be limited to this duel of titans between Apple and Facebook. Roblox, Epic Games (Fortnite), The Sandbox, Minecraft (Microsoft), ...: the candidates are numerous and in tech, a major hardware innovation from a historical rival as well as a simple feature from a challenger can brutally knock you out.
Fifteen years ago, almost to the day, Nokia and BlackBerry watched in amazement as the first iPhone keynote propelled Apple to unprecedented stock market heights. The destiny of Apple and Nokia was thus totally reversed following the launch of the iPhone in 2007, reminding us of the famous adage: “Evolve or Be Extinct”.
Apple evolved to become the giant it is today, while Nokia sank due to the lack of will to evolve of its CEO at the time to disappear from the smartphone world. This is a lesson that all tech players have in mind as the Metaverse revolution is coming up in the next few years.
Some reading
Why Bitcoin Must Never Leave Proof-of-Work (PoW). PoW makes Bitcoin unique and superior.
The five products that revolutionized Apple, the first $3T company. #2: The Macintosh, launched by a historic publicity stunt.
8 Misconceptions You Need To Get Rid of To Embrace the Bitcoin Revolution. #8: “I’m late to the party to take full advantage of the Bitcoin revolution”.