Meta 的 Metaverse 野心可能不會按計劃進行

據報道，該公司的現實實驗室部門停止了下一代耳機的開發工作，因為擔心該產品的銷售不足以證明其生產的合理性。

Meta’s metaverse ambitions may not be going as well as planned. The company’s Reality Labs division has reportedly stopped work on a next-generation VR headset due to concerns that the product wouldn’t sell well enough to justify its production.

Meta 的虛擬宇宙野心可能不會按計劃進行。據報道，該公司的現實實驗室部門已經停止了下一代 VR 耳機的開發工作，因為擔心該產品的銷售不足以證明其生產的合理性。

The Information reports that workers were given the cease order after CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed concerns during a product update meeting. Meta was reportedly expecting Apple’s Vision Pro — a product that is very similar to the one that Reality Labs was developing — to perform better than it has.

據《The Information》報道，執行長馬克·祖克柏在產品更新會議上表達了擔憂後，工人收到了停工令。據報道，Meta 預計蘋果的 Vision Pro（一款與 Reality Labs 正在開發的產品非常相似的產品）的表現會比實際情況更好。

Headsets and the metaverse

耳機和虛擬世界

Despite involvement from some of the top technology firms in the world, including Sony, HTC, Meta, and Google, virtual reality hardware remains a niche market. As far as consumers are concerned, VR remains a niche product.

儘管索尼、HTC、Meta 和谷歌等一些世界頂級科技公司都參與其中，但虛擬實境硬體仍然是一個利基市場。對消費者而言，VR仍然是一個小眾產品。

As Cointelegraph recently reported, more than half of the Fortune 100 uses Apple’s Vision Pro spatial computing headsets, and VR/AR headset use in the industrial metaverse continues to grow, but consumers just aren’t catching on.

正如 Cointelegraph 最近報導的那樣，超過一半的財富 100 強企業使用蘋果的 Vision Pro 空間計算耳機，而 VR/AR 耳機在工業虛擬宇宙中的使用持續增長，但消費者卻沒有跟上。

Part of the problem is that a certain percentage of the population experiences VR sickness. Another is that a presumably larger percentage don’t want to walk around in public with a computer strapped to their face.

部分問題在於，一定比例的人患有虛擬實境疾病。另一個原因是，可能有更多的人不想在公共場合帶著電腦走來走去。

There are products in development to address this. Meta and RayBan, for example, have had some success with their partnership to integrate AI tech into stylish eyewear. But there’s simply no telling if and when virtual reality is going to have its iPhone moment.

正在開發一些產品來解決這個問題。例如，Meta 和 RayBan 在將人工智慧技術融入時尚眼鏡方面的合作取得了一些成功。但目前尚不清楚虛擬實境是否以及何時會在 iPhone 上出現。

The cross-platform metaverse

跨平台元宇宙

In what may be a primary example of putting the horse before the cart, there still doesn’t appear to be a killer app for the metaverse when it comes to virtual and augmented reality. Developers have largely taken an “if you build it, they will come” approach to creating VR hardware.

這可能是本末倒置的一個主要例子，但在虛擬實境和擴增實境方面，虛擬世界似乎仍然沒有殺手級應用程式。開發人員在很大程度上採用了「如果你建造它，他們就會來」的方法來創建 VR 硬體。

Unfortunately, aside from the wow factor, there aren’t many things headsets can do that smartphone screens can’t. Ideally, consumers wouldn’t be forced to choose between one medium or another.

不幸的是，除了令人驚嘆的因素之外，耳機能做的事情並不多，而智慧型手機螢幕卻做不到。理想情況下，消費者不會被迫在一種媒體或另一種媒體之間進行選擇。

In the Web3 industry, for example, it’s common practice to develop device agnostic metaverse experiences. Typically, this is to foster interest in the platform, product, and service as most Web3 developers don’t have the financial resources to develop cutting-edge hardware.

例如，在 Web3 產業中，開發與裝置無關的元宇宙體驗是常見的做法。通常，這是為了培養人們對平台、產品和服務的興趣，因為大多數 Web3 開發人員沒有財力來開發尖端硬體。

The disconnect between big tech’s hardware ambitions and the boots-on-the-ground approach being developed by independent developers and the small-by-comparison companies in the Web3 industry could be a contributing factor to continuing consumer disinterest on both ends.

大型科技公司的硬體雄心與 Web3 行業中的獨立開發者和小型公司開發的實際方法之間的脫節可能是導致消費者對雙方持續不感興趣的一個因素。

Related: Deciding who owns your ‘digital twin’ will make or break the metaverse

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