The "Century Battle" of the Metaverse between Apple and Meta, should Web3 users be happy or worried?

Author: Chai Technology

You may have seen the news that Apple is expected to release a new VR-AR headset later this year, setting the stage for an intense battle with Meta for control of the metaverse.

However, we should recognize that beyond the surface-level commercial competition, the rivalry between Apple and Meta should be viewed on a deeper level—a new front has emerged between a decentralized internet and an internet controlled by large corporations.

As Inder Phull, CEO of Pixelynx, stated: "The long-term, positive battle will not be between Apple and Meta, but between large tech companies and decentralization."

While there is still no consensus on what the metaverse will ultimately look like, companies and investors are pouring billions into metaverse technologies, hoping to create a more immersive digital landscape that includes virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) experiences.

The Battle of the Century

At last year's Meta developer conference, Zuckerberg showcased their Quest Pro headset (priced at $1499) in a mixed reality format, including MR/AR features linked to their Horizon workspace. However, his most important vision clearly focused on providing immersive experiences through VR headsets and the 3D VR worlds he defined.

In contrast, Apple has laid the groundwork around AR, where a person can wear some form of glasses and live in a world where information, data, games, and more are overlaid, enhancing their experiences in the real world.

In this context, an open environment stands in stark contrast to the closed loop proposed by Zuckerberg.

Back in 2017, after Apple launched its AR kit at WWDC, Tim Cook stated that he believed Apple's delivery of AR could be one of its greatest contributions to the world in the future. Cook described AR (which overlays virtual objects onto the real world through glasses or smartphones) as a transformative technology that will soon be as ubiquitous as smartphones or the internet.

Apple has made significant investments in its AR strategy. However, given its tremendous success with the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, Apple views AR as a new frontier that will bring more people into its hardware, software, and services ecosystem. Therefore, while this is a big gamble, as Cook said, it will be transformative, just like the iPhone's transformation; it is less about betting Apple's future on AR and more about expanding Apple's influence.

To some extent, Mark Zuckerberg shares a similar vision, envisioning immersive 3D experiences through personalized avatars. These avatars can represent a person's roles in work, communication, gaming, and learning, bringing them into a virtual world through VR headsets. Zuckerberg and Meta have bet $10 billion on this venture, seemingly staking the company's future on VR.

While this may be the battle of the century with significant implications for both companies, we often ponder who will win this fight? To some extent, both may have winning strategies, but analysts predict that millions more will adopt Apple's AR strategy than Meta's VR project.

Currently, we have limited reference information on the use of AR, as true AR headsets are rare. However, today's use of AR is primarily in vertical markets, such as field service, measurement, and on-site analysis of physical environments.

Overlaying information onto physical environments through AR will have broader appeal. Apple is developing an AR device that integrates this experience into everyday lifestyles. This provides enhanced data for physical environments, which should be more appealing to a larger audience than a closed VR experience, as stillness will be a key dimension of any VR experience.

For the powerful Apple, once they see the development of a new device and category, they will enter with better solutions, including innovative designs for devices and user-friendly software and services.

For example, Apple did not invent the MP3 player, but when they entered the market with the iPod, they dominated it. Smartphones were not invented by Apple either, but the iPhone is a world-changing device. I believe that, for now, even world-class companies like Microsoft, Alphabet Inc., Snap, and Sony Group cannot compare to Apple's design capabilities, cutting-edge hardware, and vast existing ecosystem.

More Threats

The commercial competition between the two giants can sometimes be beneficial for us users; their fierce rivalry can lead to excellent products and choices. But aside from the benefits of commercial competition, what am I worried about?

Whether it's cryptocurrency exchanges, NFT developers, or gaming companies, we dream of the internet achieving a higher stage, namely the Web3 we often talk about. It is not controlled by a few large companies like Apple, Google, Meta, and Amazon. In our current internet lives, these tech companies have built the software, devices, and infrastructure we rely on.

Whichever company is more successful may gain an advantage in "colonizing" the metaverse, which raises concerns among some advocates of decentralization.

Creating an open metaverse requires not only us but also a shift in thinking from tech companies, necessitating the emergence of a new model that can be collaboratively generated. By using blockchain technology, many believe a new, more transparent, and decentralized internet can be created, where ordinary users are stakeholders and have a say in how the internet is governed.

Companies like Meta and Apple, while pursuing mainstream applications of AR and VR, clearly prefer closed ecosystems. Although Meta has made some attempts with cryptocurrencies and NFTs, indicating a tendency towards an open metaverse, it has not fully embraced blockchain technology on a large scale.

Last year, Meta joined over 30 companies, including Microsoft, Epic Games, and Lamina1, to form the Metaverse Standards Forum. The organization stated that it would strive to achieve concepts deemed critical for realizing a decentralized metaverse: open standards and interoperability. Achieving these concepts would mean that devices and systems could more easily interact with each other across different platforms, regardless of who created them.

Meta's joining of the forum indicates that it may be willing to collaborate with other tech companies eager to build an open metaverse. However, like Apple, which is known for its secretive operations, Meta has historically been very protective not only of its internal workings but also of how its Facebook and Instagram social media platforms collect, use, and manage data.

The Reality Check

It is crucial for users to have their digital identities across all platforms. If any of these existing platforms decide to strip users of these rights, I believe users will turn to other options.

For its part, Meta has stated that there will not be a metaverse managed by Meta, just as there is no "Microsoft Internet" or "Google Internet" today. In the same statement last May, Meta also said that, like today's internet, the metaverse is not a single product, nor an operating system like Microsoft's Windows, or hardware like Apple's iPhone.

However, internet traffic is largely consolidated among a few companies, whether through Google's search engine or social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, which have billions of users. Apple's iOS and Google's Android dominate the mobile market, and so far, the two largest sellers of mobile devices are Apple and Samsung, which together account for over a third of the market.

But Meta's approach seems to have a different assessment of the situation. It stated in its announcement: Like today's internet, the metaverse will be a combination of technologies, platforms, and products. It will not be built, operated, or managed by any single company or entity.

While there is no single gatekeeper controlling all digital spaces through devices, systems, and applications, the current iteration of the internet is largely controlled and monitored by a handful of multi-billion dollar companies, such as Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta, which indeed have a significant hold over our lives.

That said, regardless of how Apple and Meta promise, I remain skeptical about their commitment to the "decentralization philosophy."

In the coming year, this could be a fierce battleground for metaverse supremacy, and the ultimate outcome will be determined by Web3 users themselves.