Meta CTO says 2025 is a crucial year for its AR/VR business as competition heats up
Meta's chief technology officer (CTO) Andrew Bosworth said that 2025 will be a pivotal year for Reality Labs, the augmented and virtual reality arm of the tech giant. Bosworth, who was one of the first engineers to start working at Meta, also emphasised that the market competition in the AR/VR segment was a good sign.
On the surge in popularity of Meta's AI-powered Ray Ban glasses, Bosworth said that the breakthrough device has excited both consumers and competitors.
'Suddenly, we go from toiling in the realms of obscurity to being very much in the world with a product that is very attractive to consumers, and thus competitors. The clock has started on competition coming, and that just means that the progress we make in this year is of disproportionate value to any year before or after it closes,' he said.
The Meta executive made these remarks at Bloomberg's tech conference held last week.
His comments come at a time when there is emerging competition in the space with Google announcing last month that it is partnering with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker to create smart glasses that run on the tech giant's Android XR operating system. Apple is also reportedly looking to release its own smart glasses by next year.
'The market is actually, especially when it comes to hardware, a trailing indicator. So you look for early indicators. To some degree, you do have to have a level of confidence and taste in-house,' Bosworth said.
He also revealed what Sheryl Sandberg, former chief operating officer at Meta, had once told him. 'Sheryl used to always talk about how most companies don't fail because they got beaten by a competitor. Most companies fail because they didn't execute their own plan correctly,' he said.
'And so what I try to do with the team is really focus us, not so much on the competitive landscape as on [whether] we're executing to our standards,' Bosworth added.
Talking about the company's ambitious plans for the year, the Meta CTO said, 'What we'll know by the end of the year is whether we executed on our plan or not. What we'll know in five years time is whether that was enough.'
In February this year, Meta said that it has sold more than two million pairs of its flagship Ray Ban AI glasses since it was introduced in October 2023. Last month, the wearable became available for pre-order in India in a range of styles, including the new Skyler frame, with prices starting at Rs 29,900 and going up to Rs 35,700 for select models.
The smart glasses can be paired to your smartphone using the newly introduced Meta AI app.
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