News Analysis
Meta continues its quest to live up to its metaverse-inspired name. The April 22 announcement that it was opening the Quest headset operating system to third-party hardware makers is the latest — and most concrete — move in this area.
Partner companies will now be able to build headsets using the rebranded Meta Horizon OS, which brings capabilities like gesture recognition, passthrough, scene understanding and spatial anchors to the devices that run on it.
Betting on an Open Metaverse
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg first shared the announcement on Instagram, stating it was the next step in the company's metaverse strategy. The accompanying blog post shared further details:
"Today we are taking the next step toward our vision for a more open computing platform for the metaverse. We are opening the operating system powering our Meta Quest devices to third-party hardware makers, giving more choice to consumers and a larger ecosystem for developers to build for the platform.”
Explaining the choice of name for the new OS, the blog explained the name reflected Meta's vision of a computing platform that connects people through a shared social fabric.
“Meta Horizon OS combines the core technologies powering today’s mixed reality experiences with a suite of features that put social presence at the center of the platform,” the blog read.
Two major companies have already signed up to work with the new operating system including:
- Asus, which will use its existing technology along with Horizon to develop an all-new performance gaming headset.
- Lenovo will take what it learned from designing Oculus Rift S, to develop mixed reality devices for productivity, learning and entertainment.
Meta is also collaborating with Microsoft on a “limited-edition Quest” that’s “inspired by Xbox.”
Related Article: Apple Vision Pro Is Here. Don't Expect It in Your Workplace Any Time Soon
The Horizon OS Offering
Who else will build on the new operating system is unclear, but it all but guarantees that the VR tech that Meta has already developed will play an integral part in the evolution of the metaverse.
Meta claims responsibility for technology developments including inside-out-tracking and self-tracked controllers as well as face, body and eye tracking. In the realm of mixed reality, it has also built a full stack of technologies for merging the digital and physical worlds, one of the key envisaged characteristics of the metaverse including high-resolution passthrough, scene understanding and spatial anchors.
The other major contribution to the metaverse here is the social layer of Horizon OS. With this, users can bring carry over their avatars, friend groups and social graphs across all their virtual spaces. People will be able to connect and communicate in the virtual world, as the social layer will connect multiple platforms that are used across mixed reality. In theory, this also means they should be able to share Meta’s content library across all these platforms, which also received a rebrand in this update to the "Meta Horizon Store."
The details of when and where the first Horizon OS-based releases will be available are unclear. Details around how licensing will work are also scarce, although we do know that it is unsurprisingly using the Qualcomm Snapdragon processors that are already tightly integrated with Meta’s software and hardware stacks.
Related Article: Meta Doubles Down on Mixed Reality and AI at Connect
The Metaverse Needs More Solutions, Not Just Devices
Of all Meta's recent announcements, this one appears to be the most significant as it offers a more realistic path towards realizing its metaverse vision.
“We believe Meta is making the right move by opening Horizon OS to other devices. As Google discovered with Google Glass and Apple is realizing with Vision Pro, success in VR is not just about the device; it is about the solutions it offers," Nucleus Research CEO Ian Campbell told Reworked.
By opening its OS to other hardware, Campbell continued, Meta is making it more attractive for third parties to create VR applications. In contrast, the Apple Vision Pro is prohibitively expensive, limiting the development of VR applications for commercial or industrial use.
Horizon OS also opens the possibility of wider use and access to VR and XR in the workplace, Nickolas Wright, senior augmented reality software engineer at Das Labs, told Reworked. Hardware developers should find it less prohibitive to create new VR headwear with the high price of also developing an operating system removed from the equation, he said. This lower barrier to entry should open the door to more innovation within the hardware VR tech space.
Analogous to Android taking over the cell phone market, having a single OS on multiple company devices allows for a bigger market share. Meta will therefore extends its reach to more users across multiple devices, and users will be able to switch between different hardware without worrying about how the software works.
Developers will benefit too, as they can choose the best hardware for their project, without worrying about supported SDKs or the need to work with an unfamiliar tech stack, Wright continued.
He does note one potential drawback. “Depending on how Meta decides to make their operating system Open Source, the main benefit of each developer being able to change or add new features may not be able to be utilized. This would cause pigeonholing of new hardware features as they would have to fit within the existing firmware architecture that Meta has developed.”
The announcement came at a time when the spatial computing market is starting to heat up. Apple Vision Pro and Stream VR are the main alternatives to the Meta VR operating system, he added. With the Stream VR being used primarily on the Vive and having to have your application hosted on Steam, and the Apple VR being only for the Apple Vision pro, Meta is primed to take the industrial and enterprise market.
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Extended Reality's Application in the Workplace
While extended reality (XR) originated in the gaming and entertainment space rather than the workplace, learning and development (L&D) use cases are growing at a rapid clip owing to the applicability of this technology — whether practicing interpersonal simulations to enhance soft skills or delivering safe training for high-risk industries, Cornerstone’s chief product officer Karthik Suri said.
XR, he said, has the potential to revolutionize how we provide employees with an immersive learning experience, especially as roadblocks like obtaining and managing XR hardware have lessened. Early adopters have noted a substantial increase in focus, proficiency and retention of training via spatial learning. Of note in this context is Cornerstone's acquisition in March of immersive learning platform Talespin.
Suri noted the decreasing cost of hardware has increased XR’s versatility across healthcare, engineering, education and customer service industries, while headsets including Meta’s Quest 3 and Apple’s Vision Pro have moved into the mainstream. The HorizonOS announcement will only further accelerate adoption and maturity, he argued.
“Seamless interoperability with the core learning systems and multimodal availability of content further reduces the barrier to adoption,” he said.
Related Podcast: Why VR Training Is Poised to Grow
More Practical Workplace Applications, But the Question Remains: Why?
Earlier this year we asked if Meta was moving away from the metaverse and towards AI. At the time, Tom Henson of Emerge Digital argued that Meta’s interest in AI was more of a strategic recalibration of how to deploy and value immersive technologies. He also noted a noticeable shift away from the pursuit of fully-fledged virtual reality experiences for work and towards a more nuanced approach that incorporated mixed reality.
The reality is, the practical applications for completely virtual worlds are currently limited, with viable use cases including HR and process training, health and safety training, employee wellbeing initiatives and virtual meetings. While some businesses are exploring these niches, the broader question arises: why strive to immerse in entirely virtual universes when we can just interact with our own world?
By making its OS interoperable, Meta may have provided a solution to the first point, but the question remains open on the latter.