Meta CTO Andrew “Bos” Bosworth, one of the company’s first 15 engineers, predicted earlier this year that 2025 could be a year of greatness for Reality Lab, the company’s expanded virtual reality unit. Or it will be the year when Metaverse goes down as “legendary misfortune.”
These days, Boz appears to be leaning towards the potential of greatness. But the market is the ultimate determinant.
“We’ll decide at the end of the decade, but this feels like a pivotal year,” Boz told Bloomberg in a technology interview on Thursday.
Boz noted that Meta’s Ray-Ban AI glasses were a breakthrough that encouraged both consumers and competitors. As of February, Meta has sold over 2 million pairs since its debut in October 2023. Last fall, they outweighed the traditional leigh ban, even before Meta deployed AI capabilities.
Meanwhile, Google announced last month a partnership between Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, creating smart glasses based on Android XR. Apple is also reportedly pushing to release smart glasses in 2026.
“All of a sudden, we’re going to be a lot of things in a world where we have products that are very attractive to our consumers and very attractive to our competitors,” Boz said. “The clock is starting to compete, meaning that progress this year is unbalanced in the year before or after closing.”
Still, if the market doesn’t adopt Meta’s AR and VR products, competition with other incumbents means nothing.
“The market is actually about subsequent metrics, especially when it comes to hardware,” Boz said. “So you’re looking for early indicators. To some extent you need to have a level of confidence and taste within the company.”
He said this is what he learned from Meta’s former chief operating officer, Cheryl Sandberg.
“Cheryl was always talking about how most companies wouldn’t fail because they were beaten by their competitors,” Boz said. “Most companies fail because they don’t do their plans correctly, and what I’m trying to do with a team is to really focus on us, not on a competitive situation. [whether] We are implementing standards. ”
Meta CTO said the company has a “set of ambitious plans for the year.”
“What we know by the end of the year is whether we did it in our plan,” Boz said. “What we’ll know in five years is whether that’s enough.”
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