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Mark Zuckerberg Talks About the Future of Virtual Reality

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Elisa Wilson

Mark Zuckerberg was the revelation of the early 21st century. A Harvard alumnus, Mark Zuckerberg, changed the way how people interact and see each other. In 2004, he unveiled his invention “Facebook,” and by the time 2009 came, Mark Zuckerberg was already a household name. He has emerged as one of the key players to usher people in the new digital world, in which our information is the critical asset. He is now one of the richest men globally, and despite the controversies, his company has only profited in the last decade. He is now striving to further enhance the technology firepower and reach of “Facebook.”

He has recently spoken to CNET pertaining to the future of Virtual Reality technology, new sensors embedded in Quest Pro, and how fitness and metaverse are crucial elements in the whole picture.

It has been five years since Zuckerberg and Facebook released the first of its kind PC VR headset (called Oculus Quest 2), and now when the world is reeling with the COVID lockdown, people are considering the technology in a world where work from home seems safe, beneficial, and convenient.

However, the statistics and data suggest the opposite thing. In 2020, only 5.5 million VR headsets were sold worldwide despite the need for a stable work environment at home. In this blog, you will know what Mark Zuckerberg thinks about the path that VR technology is traversing through and where it would lead to.

Zuckerberg alluded that the greatest strength of his invention Oculus Quest 2, has been the user convenience and wire-free experience that the competitors do not offer. He also shared that people, out of all the other things, still do care about the price, and the company’s strategic decision to cut the price down by $100 in October did wonders for them. In October, Facebook decided to drop the price down of their VR headsets from $399 to $299. He also hinted that the intention was always to get more people involved and expand their customer base for VR headsets; however, Facebook has also made efforts to transcend the technology capabilities and make the VR experience more profound for the users. A new device called “Quest Pro” has been introduced, embedded with new sensors. Essentially, “Quest Pro” is a sort of “self-contained” system with high-end features along with fitness, face, and eye-tracking systems.

He has explained what sensors would add to the sense of “presence,” which is a partial fulfillment of Facebook’s objective of unveiling a social Virtual Reality experience. However, Mark Zuckerberg has given a caveat that since the product is a higher-end product, it is expected to be a little expensive.

Mark Zuckerberg expounded the overall plan of his company to CNET that the company aims to expand the reach of the technology at a higher level so that further opportunities can be seen and developed for the people to engage in the digital space of virtual reality. And Mark Zuckerberg did not squirm over the fact that he has all intentions to lose out on the money in order to win over people.

The Chief Executive Officer of Facebook talked to CNET about his business plans for about thirty minutes and said that the intention of the company is not to look at VR with a sole outlook of profit. He clearly expressed his notion that plans have not been made to keep the products at exorbitant prices and make unjustified profits from VR devices.

He added that what he and his company is really looking at is the way people can engage and interact with other people in a more creative and profound way. If we go by his words, then profit is secondary for Zuckerberg and Facebook as far as VR headsets are concerned.

Zuckerberg also shed light on the fact that in order to create a profound VR experience, the impetus should be given to the immersion aspect of the technology rather than the resolution, processor, speed, or other technological aspects.

The dream of Facebook is to lead the tech industry in making VR headsets and metaverse as much accessible as possible. The critical aspect of Zuckerberg’s business plan is to get enough people to experience immersive Virtual Reality, and word of mouth should spread. Zuckerberg alluded to the fact that the company is focusing on the fundamentals of the business idea with the VR headsets, and they are looking to make the headsets more accessible, affordable, and convenient to use. Before Facebook can talk about raising the bar, the customer base should be expanded in such a way that people do want to get on with the metaverse and VR experience.

However, as far as the current scenario suggested by data and statistics is concerned, the VR experience is not really everyone’s cup of tea. In fact, people still see it as a sort of expensive technology or something which is very inaccessible or at an early stage of development.

Nowadays, Facebook is going an inch further into unveiling something called social meta-verse, which has been officially dubbed as “Facebook Horizon,” which will consist of innovative tools and manually created worlds, looks akin to the applications like Rec Room, AltspaceVR, Roblox, Fortnite, or even Minecraft.  Zuckerberg shared that “Facebook Horizon” has been given unfathomable importance by him and his company, and it has been given top priority by the company. Facebook aims to encompass all of VR space and augmented reality with the widely reaching metaverse “Facebook Horizon,” and their methodology seems identical to that of Microsoft.

In the interview, Zuckerberg also mentioned the fact that he aims to introduce Horizon to his employees, who would set to begin work in the post-pandemic era filled with hybrid workplaces. He is also planning to command them to test “Facebook Horizon” on a regular basis. Zuckerberg expounded the idea of testing “Facebook Horizon” with his own employees and beta customers before going for the full-throttle public launch, which is looking quite far as no official date has been stated.

Zuckerberg has alluded to the fact in the interview that the VR experience will provide outstanding advantages in the workspaces and the way people communicate, and in about five years’ time, the technology will be near perfection on almost all facets.

 

Elisa Wilson is an adroit author of this website with twelve years of experience in writing film reviews and screenplay. She is a freelancer, currently based in New York with her parents. She has started this website to inform public about some basic information about Amazon along with its activation procedures for Amazon Prime video. If you are looking to watch some engaging content on Amazon, then log on to: Amazon.com/mytv.

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