The metaverse is a term from science fiction, originating in the 1992 Neal Stephenson novel Snow Crash. It generally refers to a vision of the internet connected by virtual or augmented reality. Instead of clicking and scrolling through the modern web, you can walk around the metaverse.
But Apple is instead opting to use the term “spatial computing.”
Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising. Apple famously zigs where others zag. And the company’s vice president of worldwide marketing, Greg Joswiak, told a Wall Street Journal reporter last year that he would never use the word metaverse. Well, so far, that’s a promise kept.
Apple and Meta want to control the metaverse — or whatever you want to call it
The real reward for building the dominant AR or VR platform is stewardship over a brand-new industry. Apple and Meta are under intense scrutiny from global antitrust regulators, which makes buying up companies a difficult way to expand into new sectors.
But no one is stopping them from creating new technologies — and perhaps ushering in entirely new industries — on their own, just like Apple did building its mobile app marketplace, the App Store.
The company that controls the metaverse — or whatever you want to call it — can effectively take a cut of all software for that platform. And whether you call it a metaverse or not, that’s a lucrative business to be in.
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