Will XR Get Its ‘Mainstream Moment’ at Meta Connect 2023?

Ahead of the Meta Connect 2023 event on Wednesday and after Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2023 in June, numerous companies have expressed their expectations for both companies’ latest headset offerings.

The Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro are set to reinvigorate markets with cutting-edge specifications, novel approaches to technological XR ecosystems, and partnerships with global businesses.

During a recent interview on the developments of Bizzlogic’s Meadow metaverse platform, Pascal Kuemper, Chief Executive and Founder, and Fabio Buccheri, Head of Business Development, spoke with XR Today about the implications of the new headsets on the XR market.

When asked about what to expect from the devices following last year’s lull in investments, research and development (R&D), and metaverse technologies, both executives provided their responses.

Those interested in learning more about Bizzlogic’s metaverse solution, Meadow, and the company’s history can read the following article.

The Mainstream Moment for XR Headsets

Pascal Kuemper: What I’ve learned so far with these devices is that I need to have them on hand and try them before making any statements. On paper, they sound amazing.

Even though many may have said it was a kind of “crack shot,” out of fear the companies would lose traction after the announcement, both devices sound amazing and have the capability [to do great things].

We saw that the huge mainstream breakthrough didn’t happen in the past, but [the newest headset] is lovely and evolved. However, if anyone can create a breakthrough, it’s Apple, although their price point may be slightly off.

Apart from that, there will be a breakthrough at some point, which we believe Apple can achieve, so let’s see.

Independent of the Apple Vision Pro’s quality, we see from a marketing perspective and from those interested in the technology that people welcome shifts in the market that can create changes in the XR landscape a little bit.

Based on that, I’m super interested in these devices and can’t wait to have them on hand, test them out, and explore the applications on them. Most of the time, the latter is the more interesting item to explore than the technology.

I’m looking forward to it and am very excited.

Our Head(set) in the Cloud

Fabio Buccheri: Regarding the implications for our platform in the short-term, they’re not so big because right now, we don’t offer our platform for virtual reality devices. At some point, we decided to go with high-end, real-time graphics, which is why we went for cloud computing.

From our talks with headset manufacturers like Meta, HTC VIVE, Pico, and others, I think they’re all about moving towards getting the form factors of these VR googles as small as possible in the future.

Their next iteration and steps for these headset developments will be to incorporate cloud alternatives to remote stream real-time 3D graphics onto these devices.

I find it super interesting that Apple went a completely different route, but obviously, they’re producing their own computing processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs), and would like to push and sell them through products like the Vision Pro.

I’m really curious about how this whole ride is going to end, or what the next steps will be. We’ve been in this industry since 2013, and every year has been the “mainstream moment for VR.”

The Meta Connect 2023 event will kick off on 27 September. Broadcast from the firm’s Menlo Park headquarters, attendees can view the event on Facebook and join interactive experiences on the Horizon Worlds platform.

Meta is expected to reveal more details on its Quest 3 headset, Horizon Worlds metaverse platform, and its family of products for spatial computing.

At its Developer State of the Union address, Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Executive and Founder, Meta, will outline the tech giant’s future strategy for the Metaverse. Additionally, he will offer more insights on its progress in helping to build the next iteration of the internet, among many other things.