It’s the turn of another GAFAM giant to turn to metaverses. During his usual quarterly conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke about the strong potential of the sector, also explaining that the company was already investing in the development of augmented reality on its devices.
Apple is interested in metaverses
This Thursday, January 27, 2022, Apple held its usual quarterly earnings call, revealing the company’s financial results for the period from October 2021 to the end of December 2021. Despite the announcement of Apple’s biggest quarter ever, the audience’s attention was focused on something else entirely.
When asked by Katy Huberty, managing director at Morgan Stanley, about the opportunities in the metaverse and where Apple might fit into that market, Tim Cook offered the following response:
“We’re a company in the innovation business, so we’re always exploring new and emerging technologies and I’ve talked at length about our interest in those technologies right now,” he replied.
In addition, Tim Cook also said that Apple has “more than 14,000 augmented reality apps in the App Store,” already reaching several million users. Finally, he added that he sees “a lot of potential” in this new industry and that the Apple company plans to “invest accordingly.”
An Apple virtual reality headset for the metaverse?
The metaverse refers to a conceptual idea that, in the future, we could interact with several fictional environments. The most often cited example is the online multiplayer video game, but the ambition is mainly to shape a future version of the Internet consisting of virtual and interoperable spaces.
The concept of metaverses has really materialized with the advent of new technologies, especially augmented reality. Thanks to virtual reality headsets, it is possible to superimpose any image on the universe that surrounds us.
While Meta has focused on using the Oculus headset to immerse users in the metaverse, Apple is banking on its own AR technology. The release of an Apple headset was planned for 2022, but this may be delayed due to technical issues with hardware and software.
Despite Tim Cook’s apparent support for the metaverse concept, the headset under development would be more for gaming, communication and content consumption. So far, Apple has lagged behind other tech leaders like Meta and Microsoft.
Apple’s (APPL) stock jumps 5%
As the long-awaited announcement from the U.S. Federal Reserve (FED) approaches this Wednesday, financial markets have been feverish. The world’s largest company in terms of market capitalization was not immune, posting a drop of about 15% since January 1.
That said, by the time Wall Street opened on Friday, AAPL had jumped about 5% to open the session at $166.8, after closing at $159.2 the day before. And yet, the metaverse was only a side topic of the conference, discussed substantially.
Of course, Apple wouldn’t be the first American behemoth to turn to the metaverse. Last October, Facebook had shone a light on this industry by announcing its name change to Meta. Moreover, since this announcement, Zuckerberg’s company has recruited employees from Apple and Microsoft to set up its metaverse project.
