My Metaverse-Related Predictions for 2023, Plus Readers' Own

Better get these up before they actually start transpiring:

Apple will not release or announce its widely-rumor XR headset in 2023. Putting my neck out a bit and will happily eat my words, but despite what The Information says, I'm still skeptical Apple has any motivation to enter the still tiny XR market. Also: "The headset draws power from a waist mounted battery..."

Do you really think Apple would risk its brand by putting out a product... with a fanny pack?

Four more:

VRChat will announce 10 million monthly actives in 2023. And maybe win acclaim as the leading next gen metaverse platform?

Meta will announce some kind of major shift away from the Metaverse. I mean they're already strongly hinting at that!

A major tech news outlet such as VentureBeat or TechCrunch will in 2023 declare AI-related startups like Midjourney or OpenAI as not being "hot" any more. Again, the early signs are already there. Interest in "Midjourney" on Google Trends for instance has dropped by half since its peak last August.

Official Second Life native mobile app will launch in 2023. I say "native" because there is technically a mobile app, but it's actually a cloud streaming application and not a native Second Life app in itself.

Here's some more from readers Martin K. and Kate Nova:

First Martin:

• Meta Quest 3 will be released with a better display, better CPU and GPU performance, better video pass-through, and longer lasting battery than Meta Quest Pro for less than half the price.
• Valve will announce but not fully release a new VR headset.
• Meta will announce a new name for "Horizon Worlds".

Now Kate:

The new SL Mesh Starter Avatars will roll out. They will be nicer than the current starter avatars. However they will be designed inconsistently with the way bodies, heads, skin, and clothing are currently designed, sold, and used on the grid so that there is no clear or easy upgrade path from the starter avatars to a custom, individually personalized avatar. This won't actually matter however, because there won't be any truly "new" users in 2023, only current users who make yet more alts. These "new" users will be outraged when they can't visit their favorite head or body shop on their zero-day because scammers have forced the sim owners to put a "must be 3 days old to enter" policy in place.

 LL will announce various performance improvements through the year. New World Notes and other SL, VW, & Metaverse blogs will report on the improvements and the new, faster SL experience. However, Kate will be unable to notice any difference between the new, super-better SL and the old, slow, laggy SL.

No matter how many cores your CPU has, say a gaming powerhouse 16-core CPU for example, SL will still only use 1 core.

Love these!

Image copyright The Information

Comments

[Martin K.]

Thanks for featuring some of my predictions!

Do you really think Apple would risk its brand by putting out a product... with a fanny pack?

I answer with another question: Do you really think Apple would risk its brand by requiring people to put battery packs on their heads? ;)

[Valentina Kendal]

"Do you really think Apple would risk its brand by putting out a product... with a fanny pack?"
Brilliant and probably true

[Martin K.]

Do you really think Apple would risk its brand by putting out a product... with a fanny pack?

One should also remember three points:

1) The XR headset will be a development kit that will probably be used while sitting at a desk where you can plug the glasses into a USB port. The main reason to use the "fanny pack" will probably be testing of apps.

2) Future AR glasses are likely to rely on another compute device (phone, tablet, laptop, etc.) to keep them lighter and cheaper than the XR headset. Therefore, it makes sense to use a wired connection to supply them with power and get rid of a large and heavy battery in the glasses.

3) A wired connection between your phone and AR glasses might sound outdated, but remember how common wired headphones are.

[Estelle Pienaar]

I don't know how else to contact you.You should look into this topic: ChatGPT and Linden Scripting Language. Very interesting! https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/493809-so-i-was-talking-to-chatgpt-about-lsl/

[Wagner James Au]

Interesting! For future reference my email is wjamesau at gmail. I'm also on (waaaay too much) Twitter as @slhamlet

[Martin K.]

Apple will not release or announce its widely-rumor XR headset in 2023.

It doesn't look good for that prediction: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/01/19/apple-headset-shipments-lens/

[Wagner James Au]

Or... is it still looking good?

https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/17/23560097/apple-ar-vr-glasses-headset-rumor-mixed-reality

[Martin K.]

No, that article by The Verge is about the AR glasses being "on hold indefinitely" and a second generation XR headset "launching in 2024 or 2025". The first generation XR headset is still steaming forward for a launch this year; see also: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/01/23/apple-mixed-reality-headset-interface-details/

[Martin K.]

Oh, one of my predictions related to Crayta already failed: https://medium.com/crayta/a-message-for-the-crayta-community-7c9ec53126f2

Even before any predictions about Apple's headset were able to fail!