In the previous blog, we dug deeper into the use cases for Metaverse that are revolutionizing the world. We can see that the building blocks of the Metaverse — NFTs, cryptocurrencies, VR and AR were earlier only limited to the gaming and entertainment industries, but as technologies mature, the Metaverse is set to transform all industries one by one. A report by Brandessence Market Research states that the global metaverse market was valued at $209.77 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to $716.5 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 22.7%.
There is a fair bit of buzz in the market on how companies worldwide operate in the metaverse space. Some companies are already working on innovative solutions that would become a part of the virtual revolution and are investing heavily into developing such solutions. For example, Facebook changed its name to Meta, Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard for $70 bn, and Microsoft introduced its HoloLens augmented reality glasses. Google finally revealed details about its long-awaited Project Iris, and Apple, the world's most valuable company by market capitalization, has just announced its ambitions for the Metaverse. And they are not the only ones jumping on the Metaverse bandwagon. The rising convergence of the digital and physical worlds has encouraged several companies like Adidas, Verizon, Hulu, etc., to take notice of the immersive world of Metaverse and its potential implications for their respective industries.
Some other companies with notable projects in the Metaverse space that will soon be the talk of the Metaverse town are - Linden Lab, widely known for creating Second Life, an online multiplayer game. Another distinguished and ambitious company in the virtual space is video-game maker Pixowl which designed and developed the popular non-linear mobile game, The Sandbox. Other eminent companies leading the innovation in building the Metaverse are Roblox Corporation, Nvidia Corporation, and Unity Software Inc.
Today, we will take a closer look at a few companies we recently researched and find truly inspiring. Let us see how they plan to embrace and leverage this revolutionary technology.
1. Google
With Google Glass, a slim and light-weight pair of spectacles with an AR overlay on one side, Google stands out as an early bird. To strengthen its position in the Metaverse, Google is said to have acquired Raxium, a micro light-emitting diode (microLED) display firm. Raxium's micro-LEDs are optimized for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets.
As part of Project Iris, Google is developing its functioning device for metaverse headsets. According to the report, early prototypes are already in the works, and Google plans to release the devices in 2024.
2. Microsoft
At Microsoft Build 2022, a panel of Microsoft experts discussed the company's metaverse strategy, which focuses on a significant part but no longer only on the Teams collaboration platform.
But like with most things Microsoft develops these days, it also contains Azure, namely the Azure Percept Studio, and a couple HoloLens tossed in for good measure.
Microsoft stated Kawasaki is a new customer for the company's so-called "enterprise metaverse" platform.
3. Meta
Meta has launched a flurry of projects and acquisitions in its quest to become a "Metaverse" corporate operation. It is not the torchbearer for the AR universe, but it is unquestionably one of the most important players.
In the last several years, Facebook's appetite for offerings has ranged from Giphy, which allows you to place hilarious GIFs on your social media postings, to Customer, a commercial software program provider for Facebook's corporate clientele. However, most of them were focused on a single topic gaming and digital truth. This makes sense, given that Zuckerberg has said that gaming and digital truth, grouped under the broad and difficult-to-define category of "the metaverse," are Facebook's future.
4. NVIDIA It announced the beta launch of Omniverse in October 2020, describing it as a scalable, multi-GPU real-time reference development platform for 3D simulation. Omniverse will allow consumers to design 3D fashions of the body world using Pixar's Universal Scene Description and NVIDIA RTX technology. Six months later, NVIDIA released NVIDIA Omniverse Enterprise, allowing worldwide 3D design teams working across many software suites to interact in real-time in a shared digital space. "NVIDIA Omniverse joins worlds with the aid of employing, permitting the metaverse's imaginative and prescient to turn into a reality," said Richard Kerris, vice president of the Omniverse at NVIDIA.
5. Qualcomm Qualcomm made a flurry of announcements at GDC 2022, many of which concentrated on the explosion of content material inside the Extended Reality business. Qualcomm has already added several specialized partners to the Snapdragon Spaces companions list, including studios and operators. Despite this, the company is doubling down on Snapdragon Spaces with its latest developments. Qualcomm Ventures, the company's venture capital arm, is expected to create a $100 million Snapdragon Metaverse fund with the XR enterprise subsidiary to support Metaverse.
6. Apple
Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, claimed that the company sees potential in "the region" and is "making an investment appropriately." According to AppleInsider, the Apple CEO referenced the company's work in augmented reality (AR) when pressed on the subject. Cook believes that Apple's ARKit AR development platform will let developers create apps that would help users access the Metaverse. Many industry experts believe that Metaverse is not expected to be fully realized for at least half a decade; many corporations are placing their early bets and making significant inroads to leverage this ground-breaking technology. They are confident that with the onset of Web3 and the ever-increasing accessibility, Metaverse will not only pay dividends for these companies but will also re-imagine several aspects of our personal and social lives. As of now, industries like BFSI, Retail, and Media are set to experience the most significant disruptions.
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