2022 is arguably the most successful year for Metaverse as the new meta brand from Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Google prepares to launch new hardware products and software services in this niche for users.

“Metaverse” comprises software and hardware that enable users to play games, work in virtual 3D or take information from the Internet and integrate it into the real world in real time. Currently, users can access Metaverse through smartphones, but they will later experience it through advanced Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR) headsets.

Big tech companies are betting that the gadget, which takes their users into expanded or imaginative worlds, will open up the biggest new software market since Apple launched a touchscreen smartphone last year, or computer glasses or a VR headset in a couple Years.

“The big technology platforms (which are benefiting from the growth of mobile computing applications) are now moving towards augmented reality to prepare for the next shift in computing,” the analyst said. Goldman Sachs’s Eric Sheridan wrote in a December note that appears to be the “next logical shift in consumer behavior” and will spawn new industry leaders.

Companies invest money in research and development of prototypes and underlying technologies, and prepare for a virtual battle when their products hit the market.

Follow Crunchbase, venture capitalists invested $ 10 billion in virtual startups in 2021, and that number doesn’t count the budgets of big tech players. For example, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company had spent so much money on virtual and augmented reality by 2021 that it had saved $ 10 billion in the company’s profits.

Goldman Sachs analysts estimate that approximately $ 1.35 trillion will be invested in developing these technologies over the next few years.

Here are the big names in tech and their releases for the next year.

Meta

Facebook TTest the new Horizon Workroom Remote Working App Above headphone VR Oculus Quest 2 on August 18, 2021 | Source: Facebook

Facebook is currently leveraging its full potential on Metaverse technology. In fact, in 2021, the company changed its name to Meta Platforms to highlight the company’s new focus.

According to IDC, Meta currently leads the way in this regard when compared to other big tech competitors. They manufacture and sell VR hardware and have 75% of the market by 2021.

On Christmas Eve, the most popular app on Apple’s US App Store was the Oculus VR app for using the Quest 2 headset, an imperfect but telling sign that shows so many people are turning to the device.

Meta hasn’t announced any Quest sales yet. But Qualcomm, Quest’s core chipmaker, estimated that The company shipped 10 million devices in November, and while that is not the number of smartphones, they were important and were fueled by massive television advertising campaigns promoting the devices.

Meta plans to release another VR headset called Project Cambria this year. According to Facebook, the device will have better “mixed reality” hardware or use a camera outside of a VR headset to convey the real world to viewers. Meta says it will also include face and eye tracking, which should make the device more responsive to user commands.

Meta’s first foray into the market gave the company an early glimpse of what software users wanted in their headphones. That month, the company launched a social platform called Horizon Worlds, where people can watch comedy shows and movie nights in the virtual world of Facebook.

Meta has acquired a number of companies that develop popular apps for the Oculus headset, most notably Supernatural, a training game where users hit blocks on the spot.

This strategy is subject to antitrust investigations. The Federal Trade Commission has opened an in-depth investigation into the $ 400 million acquisition, The Information reported.

Apple

Augmented Reality | Source: Apple

Apple has never confirmed that it is working on headphones, but has been testing approaches within its Technology Development Group for years.

Apple has laid the foundation for a huge new product portfolio. His new iPhones are equipped with lidar sensors that can measure the distance to an object – crucial for location-based applications. Newer iPhones and iPads come with software called ARkit that allows developers to create apps that use the iPhone’s sensors to map and precisely locate rooms.

These technology platforms lay the foundation for an entirely new product, expected to be a high-end headset from Apple that combines virtual and augmented reality, which should be possible to launch in 2022.

Unlike Meta, Apple doesn’t discuss new hardware products until they’re ready to reveal them. If Apple launches the headphones, it has the potential to shake up the entire market and give a new approach to many competitors, just as the iPhone did for smartphones and the Apple Watch for smartwatches.

Apple’s competitors will be watching closely what Apple CEO Tim Cook has to say about the biggest advantages and selling points of its headphones.

The content and the way Apple integrates its services will be critical to the attractiveness of the device. Will Apple launch a new app store for virtual reality apps? Will Apple headsets feature VR-based sports or exclusive content or music from a NextVR purchase?

Investors and market analysts are starting to wonder if future sales of headphones or other realistic gadgets will push Apple stock higher when it publishes a listing.

Citi analysts wrote in December:

“Apple’s current market value does not reflect the introduction of new product categories. That will change with the introduction of new AR / VR headsets in 2022. ”

Apple won’t call it the “Metaverse”, however. Cook divide in September:

“I would stay away from the buzzwords. We just call it augmented reality. ”

Google

Glass alphabet used in production

Google sparked the headset craze in Silicon Valley with the introduction of Google Glass in 2013. The experiment wasn’t well received, but Google didn’t give up. To date, Google Glass headsets are still selling to businesses, but often not to consumers.

Now there are signs that Google is getting back into serious augmented reality, despite not having as many products or technologies that are widely known as its competitors. Since Glass was introduced, many newer AR headsets have been introduced with refined screens, better sensors, and more powerful processors.

Google owns the Android operating system, the most popular smartphone software in the world. So when Metaverse headsets and devices replace smartphones with the new operating system, the giant will suffer the most.

In 2020, Google North, a well-funded startup specializing in the manufacture of lightweight AR glasses, acquired the spiritual successor to Google Glass.

According to a report, Google now has a new team focused on operating systems for augmented reality post announced Senior Director Mark Lucovsky in December. Before joining Google, Lucovsky worked at Metas Oculus.

According to the job advertisement, Google is hiring heavily for this team, which is currently working on “creative AR devices” and adding products “to the AR portfolio”.

Microsoft

army US team carries the IVAS system, a modified version of the HoloLens 2

Microsoft was the first big tech company to launch the fully functional AR headset HoloLens in 2016. However, the current product has not yet reached the level of a device that consumers wear regularly.

Instead, Microsoft is focusing on “business” or selling headsets to companies that can spend the $ 3,500 list price and want to see if the technology can make their employees more productive.

The most famous HoloLens customer is the US military. Microsoft won a $ 22 billion contract earlier this year and sold 120,000 custom HoloLenses to the government that soldiers could use to “increase mortality”. However, earlier this year the military announced that they would postpone the start of field tests of HoloLens to 2022.

Whether the deal will be further delayed or whether both sides will be successful will be an important signal for the state of the augmented reality market.

HoloLens has also piqued the interest of medical companies who want to see if augmented reality can help improve operating rooms or even perform operations remotely.

Microsoft is investing heavily in cloud services to connect virtual worlds that are scheduled to go public in 2022.

In March, the company announced Mesh, which enables software manufacturers to create apps for different devices to share the same digital reality. Mesh works like a video call, only with a hologram. Microsoft laid the foundation for this venture in 2017 with the acquisition of AltspaceVR.

These Metaverse software features will be introduced in 2022. Microsoft will integrate Mesh into its video conferencing application Teams later this year. Features for Xbox games are also being worked on and there is no specific release date yet. But it remains to be seen whether …