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Welcome back to Spatial Beats. This week, we look at Meta’s Q4 performance and other happenings from the spatial spectrum. Let’s dive in…
Meta experiences historic stock rout after Facebook growth stalled. Meta Platforms Inc.’s stock plummeted, closing down over 26% after Facebook’s user base faltered last quarter for the first time. Adding fuel to the fire that burned shareholders, Meta Reality Labs, the division charged with building the metaverse and the devices that access it, lost $3.3 Billion. This is despite generating an impressive $877 million in fourth-quarter revenue, selling an estimated ten million Quest headsets and driving Quest Store revenue over $1 Billion.
Meta Introduces Upgraded Avatars, Custom Clothing, and Cross-platform Integration. The upgrades add new facial shapes and assistive devices for people with disabilities. Meta is also partnering with the NFL so you can outfit your avatar with team merch (go Rams!). Clothing for avatars, and selling avatar enhancements, costumes, and upgrades, is part of Rec Room and Fortnite’s core business.
Emerge brings physical touch to the metaverse. The company announced the launch its ultrasonic haptic feedback peripheral, the Emerge Home system this week. The new device will be available on Kickstarter this month for $500. Emerge raised an additional $13 million from strategic investors that include Matthew Ball of EpyllionCo, author of the Metaverse Manifesto, among other XR insiders.
Cisco AR Holograms, The Call Of The Future. Webex is using the HoloLens and Kinect sensor to create realistic holograms for remote collaboration.
How Facebook is Morphing Into Meta (Sheera Frenkel, Mike Isaac and Ryan Mac /NYTimes). An inside look at the reorg of the company formerly known as Facebook.
Now You Can Get a Mortgage in the Metaverse (Kim Velsey/Curbed)
This Week in XR is now a podcast hosted by Paramount’s Futurist Ted Schilowitz and Charlie Fink, the author of this weekly column. You can find it on podcasting platforms Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube. Watch the latest episode below.
Charlie Fink is an author and futurist focused on spatial computing. See his books here. Spatial Beats contains insights and inputs from Fink’s collaborators including Paramount Pictures futurist Ted Shilowitz.
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