Shelly Kramer, founding partner and principal analyst at Futurum Research, joins Cheddar News. 
   



Can Meta Lure Consumers & Investors Into the Metaverse?

meta unveiling their high end virtual reality headset on Tuesday that at the company's annual developer conference, this is facebook's parent company looks to dominate the metaverse despite the many challenges that they've been facing this year. So joining us now to discuss Shelly Kramer, co founder and lead analyst over at future Room Research. Shelly is such a pleasure to have you here. Thanks so much for joining us. So meta unveiled that new VR headset, a hefty price tag, $1500 is how much it's gonna cost. What do you make of the headset, the price tag and any sort of revelations from this? Well, I think it was big news, although from what I've heard the keynotes were a little lackluster yesterday, which is kind of interesting. Um but you know, for me it's it's obvious that uh that face for that matter is shifting its focus from consumers to business. And this new quest pro headset which retails for $1500 much more than its predecessor, Much increased capabilities and so forth, is designed really to be attractive to the enterprise. Okay, so what was what did you think of for meta do you think this is going to be enough to sort of dominate this space given the fact that they're sort of betting the entire company the name change everything on sort of the metaverse here. Well what are you gonna do? You've got a platform that is not at all attractive to young people. That is, you know, a neighborhood barbecue gathering for 60 year olds. No offense and I mean I'm 60 so I'm not an ageist, but I'm just saying like young audiences aren't interested, you've got the advertising issue, that's a problem. And the sharp decrease in ad revenue, you've got a bunch of other problems. So betting on something that is going to bring your company sort of into the next iteration of what it can be, I think is where meta needs to be. How do you feel like it's going so far? Do you think that they've been meeting some of these challenge challenge is to sort of get this off to a good start so far? How do you sort of assess this? Well, how to get, I'm not sure, I'm clear on how to get what off to a good start. How do how do you transform the organization and shift focus? Is that your question? Yes. And also shift focus and and creating the metaverse. I mean this is a completely uncharted territory for all consumers here. It is the completely uncharted territory. And if you speak with a lot of consumers, I think you have, you know, head scratching people don't really know and understand what the metaverse is, what it can be, what it can do. Um you know, I think the way that I like to explain it is to think of it in the most simple terms that the metaverse is away Way of accessing the internet and it's a way that's different than what it is, we're accustomed to. Okay, well, we used to use these mobile devices, they're omnipresent in our hands, in our pockets today, in completely different ways to write. 15 years ago, we weren't using our mobile devices the same way we use them now. So I think it makes perfect sense to think about, you know, our evolution and how we use the internet and how we might use the internet differently by way of a metaverse. So I think that when you can think that way, it makes a lot of sense. Um and I think about, I think about when you the news of Microsoft, that's a really big deal and I think it's a really, really smart move. Look, Tiktok has been mentioned frequently by Mark Zuckerberg, mainly in competition to instagram and facebook, but do you expect the company sort of real in those younger users with the metaverse? Is that going to be something that's going to be a carrot for him to sort of dangle here? Maybe maybe um you know, the problem with the metaverse is that, you know, you have to teach people a new way of doing things right? And if you already have your already a gaming family, say for instance, right? Um understanding the metaverse and the allure of the metaverse and virtual reality and all of that sort of thing is not a big leap, but for those of us, but my family included, who aren't gamers who aren't playing in that sandbox, so to speak, it is a big leap. It is a big change. It's, you know, putting a headset on to go into another space. Do I want to do that? Do I care? Um, so I think there is some education involved. Um, and I think when people start to see the applications that are possible, for instance, in the workplace, um, and I think that's really why we're seeing this meta making this bet on the enterprise space, the workspace as opposed to the consumer space. I think that the chance for more rapid adoption will happen in the enterprise. No, I think you're spot on. I think if you're not a gamer and you have no sort of connection to this space, there's no sort of education and I think there's going to have to be sort of this trial period for a lot of people here. Shelly is such a pleasure to have you here. Shelly Kramer is the co founder and lead analyst over a future and research. Thanks for joining us.