According to a recent Bloomberg report, while declining spending in the consumer segment could slow down the metaverse, Apple’s entry into this market segment could be key to boosting it.

The slowdown in consumer spending and the lack of standards may continue to be a drag on the adoption of Virtual and Augmented Reality. However, Apple’s likely entry into the market could be a catalyst for a faster growth of the metaverse. According to Bloomberg estimates, this could boost the growth of this market to reach 615,000 million dollars in 2030.

These estimates suggest that these advances are likely to be driven by the use of virtual 3D for shopping, events, social networking, and other consumer applications.

This is highlighted by the senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, Mandeep Singh, for whom the offers of metaverse that take advantage of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) devices for immersive 3D experiences beyond gaming. This covers areas such as electronic commerce or education.

“VR/AR hardware and revenue based on tokens and ads will be critical to the consumer, while public cloud infrastructure and VR/AR software and enterprise design will be key to laying the foundation for experiences.”

According to this person in charge, Apple’s entry into this space with a new mixed reality headset, which could hit the market in the first half of the year, remains crucial for the widespread adoption of the metaverse.

Alliances, key to boosting the metaverse

The slowdown in AR/VR hardware growth in number of units may continue to challenge the metaverse in the near term amid a pullback in consumer spending.

When it comes to the adoption of Virtual Reality headsets, innovation will be key to gaining market share. In this sense, IDC anticipates that spending on AR/VR will grow will exceed 40,000 million dollars in 2030, a notable growth compared to nearly 4,300 million in 2022.

IDC predicts that AR/VR spending will grow to exceed $40 billion by 2030

In this scenario, offerings in the metaverse could continue to expand beyond games with new partnershipscreating new opportunities for shopping, concerts and other virtual events.

Platforms like Roblox and Decentraland already have deals with Gucci, Nike, and Coca-Cola, among others, creating unique experiences for users to see the brand through a different lens. Selling high-end luxury items in the metaverse demonstrates the potential for monetization.

Live events are also promising, with platforms like Fortnite hosting concerts for well-known artists like Ariana Grande or Travis Scott and others. These performances attract millions of users with the attraction that they are experiences that defy the limitations of the physical world.

The forecast is that these alliances continue to rise and manage to attract more users.

Generative AI can improve user experience

Generative AI and GPT they could revolutionize the metaverse by offering users human interactions in a virtual landscape.

GPT’s ability to leverage large language models is an enhancement that can provide different responses to text, voice, and gestures. We believe that platforms like Meta’s Horizon World or Roblox can switch to GPT to scale up and expand into new areas like education.

GPT could also improve the way users work virtually. Consumer applications have had better adoption compared to business ones, although in the coming years we could see how the way employees work improves.

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