Meta CTO: This year is a "critical year" for augmented and virtual reality businesses

IT Home June 8th news, Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew "Boz" Bosworth said in an interview recently that 2025 may be the "year of greatness" of Meta's Reality Labs, or it may be the year when the metaverse has become a "legendary failure case." And nowadays, Bosworth seems to be more inclined to believe that it has the potential to achieve greatness, but the final decision is still in the hands of the market.

IT Home noted that Bosworth In an interview with Bloomberg Technology on Thursday, he mentioned: "We will make a judgment at the end of this decade, but this year does feel like a critical year." He noted that Meta's Ray Ban AI glasses have sold more than 2 million pairs as of February this year since its launch in October 2023, and even before Meta launched its AI capabilities, it sold more than traditional Ray Ban glasses.

At the same time, Google announced last month that it had collaborated with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker to develop smart glasses based on the Android XR system, and Apple is also rumored to plan to launch smart glasses in 2026. "We have come from the obscurity to a market that is very attractive to consumers and very attractive to competitors, and the competition clock has started, which means that the progress we have made this year is worth much more than in the past or any year since," Bosworth said. However, even in the face of competition from other giants, it doesn't make any sense if the market does not accept Meta's AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) products. Because only the widespread adoption of the market can promote the standardization of related technologies in the entire industry. "The market is actually a lag indicator, especially in terms of hardware. So you have to look for early signals. In a way, you have to have a certain confidence and taste within the company," Bosworth said, noting that this is what he learned from Sheryl Sandberg, former chief operating officer of Meta.

"Sherley used to say that most companies didn't fail because they were defeated by their competitors, but because they didn't execute their plans correctly. So I tried to focus on this, not too much on the competitive landscape, but on whether we were following our standards," Bosworth said.

Bosworth said the company has a series of ambitious plans this year and is moving as planned, saying: "By the end of this year, we will know if we have implemented our plans. In five years, we will know if it's enough."