Yeah.. I’m a bigger VR fan than most, but nobody has figured out the UX for it or any killer use cases yet. I don’t think Facebook is particularly likely to be able to ship something that can compete with whatever Microsoft or Apple can put out, either

BUT if it only costs then a few dozen billion to take a stab at it, they may as well. We can see what a disaster the mobile platforms locking down Facebook’s spying has been for their ad business

The issue is that we have like 40 years of UX improvement for desktops and now have super high resolution monitors that make that UX experience usable. We have like 5 years for VR and 0 years with a high enough resolution to make it usable. I think once high resolution enough VR comes out it'll pretty much be "oh I don't need monitors anymore, but keyboards/mice are still pretty much ideal for text entry/knowledge work, so lets keep those. probably more standing desks also." The metaverse thing is a solution in search of a problem, and in Facebook's case, clearly a solution in search of more money.

> I don’t think Facebook is particularly likely to be able to ship something that can compete with whatever Microsoft or Apple can put out, either

Yes, but the Oculus Quest 2 is pretty good for the price, and fact that its probably 5 years earlier than anything anyone else is putting out. They're really actually trying it seems, which is pretty welcome.

I honestly think the coolest aspects of it are the simple AR-ish things they're doing (hand tracking, keyboard tracking, the camera based zone for where you can walk, etc).

I don't understand how you say this when Oculus Quest 2 (owned by FB, of course) is probably the best + most popular VR experience. Is it early days? Yes, of course. But this quasi-religious idea that only Apple (or Microsoft? lol..) can create the "2.0" or "3.0" VR experience is a bit lacking in evidence.

Not that I am saying FB will necessarily be the ones, but I think the only honest position is that "the jury's still out" on who owns this one.

On the flip side VR is just 1 UX innovation away from blowing up.

The rate of gains in mobile computing (M1x), mobile vision (pixel 6 pro) and mobile sensors will make the technical and monetary barriers to VR dissapear within the next 5 years.

Whatsapp was a small.iterative change to chat apps and it cost them $20 billion. Spending a few billions to get ahead on the next paradigm in interactive experience simply prudent spending.

A big part of the UX problem is the form factor. Same story as early 2000's "tablet computers."

On that note, taking bets that their new brand name is "Facebook+".

Yeah, their usual play would be to see which innovative upstart begins to own the space and buy them out. But with all the antitrust attention and valuations being what they are, they can't expect to do that anymore.