A few days ago, Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company would be renamed Meta, with Facebook becoming a sub-brand in the overall company map. Zuckerberg calls Meta a “social technology” company as the main focus will become the “metaverse.”
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The metaverse is the company’s concept of the future of the internet and social communication. Essentially it is an augmented virtual reality world in which you can communicate and collaborate with others. This effectively removes you from your physical reality and injects you into a virtual world that you can turn into whatever pleases you.
Given that Meta owns Oculus, the company is not only working on the software of the metaverse, but it is also heavily involved in the hardware. Reports are now surfacing that the company may be looking to open physical stores to sell the metaverse hardware, which would bring the technology further out to those who may not have heard of it.
Reports now suggest that Facebook is planning to set up its own brick-and-mortar shop to possibly sell its VR headsets, AR glasses, Portal devices and more.
According to The New York Times( behind paywall), Meta has discussed opening retail stores that will eventually span the world. Quoting people with knowledge of the project and company documents, the report said “the stores would be used to introduce people to devices made by the company’s Reality Labs division, such as virtual reality headsets and, eventually, augmented reality glasses.” Facebook, it may be recalled, is building augmented-reality sunglasses in collaboration with Ray Ban named Stories.
The report said the first flagship store will likely open in Burlingame, California, where Meta has a Reality Labs office.
TechRadar
The metaverse concept is still being developed, and it’s not yet been widely accepted, with many expressing doubts and concerns over the technology and concept.
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