Betting your company on Metaverse AR/VR Craze

First Story that I want to share today is from my experience

In 2009 I worked as an Animator and E-Learning Courseware Creator and Designer. And I was planning to switch the design domain to HCI/UX, i.e. Human-Computer Interaction/User Experience Design.

And software like Apple Shake and Adobe After Effects was standard competitive tool used in both domains.

I was using an iMac at that time. Adobe After Effects was bundled in Creative Suite, costing around INR 45,000/- in India. Apple Shake was way cheaper as it was a standalone offering from Apple.

It was the day of 30th July 2009 that I was going to start to learn the Apple Shake as Apple offered all tutorials on their website for free. And it was the same day that Apple discontinued Apple Shake. When I woke early to learn, I saw the news on their portal. I was devastated by the news. But I was relieved as I saved my time as if I started learning it two months ago, and then they discontinued it, which was a waste of time and energy. The software skill you acquired doesn’t exist in the world, or there is no demand for your talent in your industry, is a total waste of time.

There is another story that I can share with you today.

Microsoft Silverlight was released in the year 2007. I was working as an E-Learning Courseware Animator/Designer. We at the IT company used to have lunch with colleagues from two different departments. Five of us were related to the design field. We constantly talk about new App offerings from Microsoft called Silverlight, which were exact pixel-to-pixel copies of Adobe Creative Suite apps like Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash. Flash requires a browser plugin to play SWF animations on the web; similarly, Microsoft used to need a plugin to play Silverlight animations on the web. So what was the differentiation factor between design applications offered by Adobe and Microsoft? Adobe has provided design apps for the last 20 years, and Microsoft has just entered the market with an exact copy. Adobe has confidence from all design industry individuals, and Microsoft has accurate apps to offer that work with the same system architecture for the web.

Today Another Story – Another Reality

Now Facebook has introduced Metaverse to the world and changed the parent company name to Meta. So obviously, they have Trademarks registered for Meta and Metaverse. I have observed deeply for the last year; one company from Pune, India, working in the Medical animation field, claims that they have a high-tech offering in AR/VR (Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality) based on Metaverse technologies. They are showcasing it everywhere in US/UK and India. One thing they are selling at very cheap rates, and the Animation quality is mediocre. Meta/Facebook owns the name they mention in every post on social media. So what they are betting their company on is owned by someone else. So they may face lawsuits in future if they are that successful. And another thing is that Facebook is a $200 billion company that is losing revenue, massively layoffs employees and acting like a fraud in marketing behaviour by selling user data to other companies to run online advertising campaigns. So Meta is at risk of a class action suit in America or any other part of the world and a Pune-based company betting all of their company’s futures on Metaverse. And the third thing is that the $3 trillion company Apple Inc. is about to enter in same AR/VR technology in the coming six months and has mobile, tablet, computer and watch offerings which can beat Meta in its space easily as Meta is a social media platform including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

So you know technologies come and go. Even a company profitable today may not exist tomorrow morning. In business, you need stable revenue, and you can’t ride a random horse which rides nowhere. So wait and see, study and then invest or bet.

So what do you think about where you will invest your energy in the coming months? Apple or Meta?

Thanks & Regards
Mandar Apte

Published by Mandar Apte

Mandar is a Mumbai-based multi-disciplinary designer with UX/UI, Logo, Symbol, and Brand Identity design expertise. He currently runs his Mudrkashar Linguistic Apple iPhone, iPad, and Mac app business in the heart of Mumbai city.

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