alt Hacker NewsThe Meta/Oculus bet was never about VR or gaming. It is to solve Zuck's greatest fear of being beholden to platforms controlled by others. What it was supposed to be was basically what Microsoft missed out on with mobile, losing to Google and Apple. VR and AR could be that next platform to own and control. They would love to have all the data that Google and Apple enjoy. That's what Quest -> Horizon was about, change a gaming device into a mainstream entertainment and work-friendly one. This is all driven out of fear and lack of control. It would suck for them if OpenAI owns the most successful personal AI device.
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I still find it funny that Apple did exactly the usual Apple thing of coming in way later and yet inventing a UX for this kind of stuff good enough that Meta immediately started scrambling to copy it.
They could release a subsidized Facebook phone which is just some android pos with Facebook rammed into it for way less than the 70 billion or whatever they burned on VR.