Mark Zuckerberg’s promise of the Metaverse seems to finally be seeing the light. Three years after the company, formerly Facebook, re-introduced itself as Meta and announced their vision for a digital world where one could both work and relax, the Metaverse has found a home in Orion. No thanks to Horizon Worlds, a VR hellscape of floating avatars.

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The tides have turned on Meta’s AR after its success in the smart glasses market, culminating in the reveal of Orion in late September. The prototype showed holograms and tools projected and seen through the silicon carbide lenses, controlled by eye tracking, hand gestures, voice command, and a neural wristband. The wristband, a breakthrough piece of tech in of itself, will be sold ahead of a consumer version of Orion, and is expected to be integrated into Meta’s Quest VR headsets and the Ray-Ban smart glasses.

Since 2014, Meta has poured USD 63 bn into AR and VR tech — excluding the USD 2 bn they shelled out to acquire Oculus — and had reported USD bns in losses per quarter.

But the future is looking bright for Meta. The successful unveiling and positive reception of this product is fulfilling Zuckerberg’s 2023 prophecy that the sector is “a very long-term bet” that left investors dubious, but experts believe that “Meta’s continued commitment to virtual and mixed reality applications” and recommend buying the stock.

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