CES 2023: Metaverse Gets New Life From Enterprise Uses

LAS VEGAS — The metaverse remains a hot area among companies exhibiting at CES 2023, despite tepid interest so far in current consumer offerings from the likes of Facebook-parent Meta Platforms (META). However, it’s enterprise applications for the metaverse that are drawing the most attention now.

“Any dialogue around metaverse is very likely to be met with skepticism,” said Steve Koenig, vice president of research for the Consumer Technology Association, owner and operator of CES. “And that’s OK, because we’ve seen no shortage of marketing spin.”

While many companies at CES 2023 are still pitching virtual reality headsets, accessories and content for consumer applications like gaming, others will be showing off enterprise applications for metaverse technologies.

“Metaverse is still a speculative term, but make no mistake this is a real trend,” Koenig said at a CES preview event late Tuesday. He describes the metaverse as “next-generation online experiences.”

The vision of the metaverse as a digital space for hyper-immersive, shared experiences using VR headsets like “Ready Player One” is not happening, he said. Instead companies are making virtualized 3D spaces accessible from PCs, tablets and smartphones because most people don’t own VR headsets, he said.

Big Tech Firms Use Metaverse For Enterprise

Meanwhile, companies like Microsoft (MSFT) and Nvidia (NVDA) are leveraging the technology for enterprise applications such as collaboration. Teams of engineers and designers can work around on the same 3D digital model of a product from multiple physical locations.

“At CES 2023, we will start to see legit substance forming around this trend of metaverse,” Koenig said.

Augmented reality is a subset of the metaverse, he said. Augmented reality overlays graphics and text in a person’s field of view. By contrast, virtual reality immerses people in an all-digital environment for gaming and watching surround videos.

An enabling technology for AR will be “5G Advanced,” the second chapter of 5G wireless technology, Koenig said.

The advanced versions of 5G will unlock more capabilities in areas like data capacity and latency. That should fuel industrial internet-of-things applications, he said. 5G Advanced also will include protocols for XR applications, Koenig said. XR stands of extended reality and is the umbrella term for virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality.

“All this is coming and it’s happening over the next several years,” Koenig said about 5G Advanced.

CES 2023: Digital Health, Smart Homes On Display

CES 2023 kicked off with press events late Tuesday, including a showcase for dozens of exhibitors called CES Unveiled. Gadgets on display at CES Unveiled included devices for digital health, smart homes, computing, gaming and more.

Media events will continue on Wednesday with press conferences from consumer electronics firms such as LG, Samsung and Sony (SONY). CES 2023 officially opens Thursday and runs through Sunday in Las Vegas. Organizers forecast 100,000 attendees and more than 3,100 exhibitors.

In other news, the Consumer Technology Association predicted that U.S. consumer technology spending will drop 2.4% in 2023 to $485 billion. The trade group anticipates a looming recession and inflation will weigh on consumer spending this year.

In 2022, U.S. consumer tech spending slid 2.9% to $497 billion from 2021’s record high of $512 billion, the group said.

Follow Patrick Seitz on Twitter at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.

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