Meta 的 Metaverse 野心可能不会按计划进行

据报道，该公司的现实实验室部门停止了下一代耳机的开发工作，因为担心该产品的销量不足以证明其生产的合理性。

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 的虚拟宇宙野心可能不会按计划进行。据报道，该公司的现实实验室部门已经停止了下一代 VR 耳机的开发工作，因为担心该产品的销量不足以证明其生产的合理性。

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.

据《The Information》报道，首席执行官马克·扎克伯格在产品更新会议上表达了担忧后，工人收到了停工令。据报道，Meta 预计苹果的 Vision Pro（一款与 Reality Labs 正在开发的产品非常相似的产品）的性能会比实际情况更好。

Headsets and the metaverse

耳机和虚拟世界

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.

尽管索尼、HTC、Meta 和谷歌等一些世界顶级科技公司都参与其中，但虚拟现实硬件仍然是一个利基市场。对于消费者而言，VR仍然是一个小众产品。

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 最近报道的那样，超过一半的财富 100 强企业使用苹果的 Vision Pro 空间计算耳机，而 VR/AR 耳机在工业虚拟宇宙中的使用持续增长，但消费者却没有跟上。

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.

部分问题在于，一定比例的人患有虚拟现实疾病。另一个原因是，可能有更多的人不想在公共场合带着电脑走来走去。

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.

正在开发一些产品来解决这个问题。例如，Meta 和 RayBan 在将人工智能技术融入时尚眼镜方面的合作取得了一些成功。但目前尚不清楚虚拟现实是否以及何时会在 iPhone 上出现。

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.

这可能是本末倒置的一个主要例子，但在虚拟现实和增强现实方面，虚拟世界似乎仍然没有杀手级应用程序。开发人员在很大程度上采用了“如果你构建它，他们就会来”的方法来创建 VR 硬件。

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，除了令人惊叹的因素之外，耳机能做的事情并不多，而智能手机屏幕却做不到。理想情况下，消费者不会被迫在一种媒体或另一种媒体之间进行选择。

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 行业中，开发与设备无关的元宇宙体验是常见的做法。通常，这是为了培养人们对平台、产品和服务的兴趣，因为大多数 Web3 开发人员没有财力来开发尖端硬件。

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.

大型科技公司的硬件雄心与 Web3 行业中的独立开发者和小型公司开发的实际方法之间的脱节可能是导致消费者对双方持续不感兴趣的一个因素。

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