Facebook's Lingering Business Problem
On March 25, 2014, about 7.5 years ago, Facebook announced that it was acquiring Oculus VR, the then-leader in the emerging market for VP hardware. Since then, Facebook has been integrating the technology, expanding the offerings, and generally touting the benefits of VR for the masses. Despite this huge investment and PR push, though, VR has not really moved beyond the domain of niche games, or into anything approaching mainstream adaption. Facebook persists in its push, of course, with their most recent offering being a pair of AR glasses reminiscent of Google Glass (which has since been essentially abandoned). I don't think they are going to succeed in their business goal, and I'll explain why I think this. First, we should consider what their business goal actually is, because that may not be evident to everyone. I believe that Facebook envisions a market for VR/AR applications as an emerging business, in much the same way that smartphone apps were an emerging market when t...