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A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

washingtonpost.com

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Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#121

Post by matthewdgreen »

fyrn_ wrote: post #51
nine_k wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who were the mobile pioneers who blazed the trail? Where are they now? Let's exclude Apple and Google from the competition because they own the mobile platforms.

They own the mobile platforms because they blazed the trail as you put it. That was the prize they were competing for, Meta was late with the HTC First / Facebook phone, and so they lost. Of course they would have liked to own their own little mobile fiefdom, they are incredibly valuable platforms

Palm, Blackberry and Windows PocketPC blazed the trail. iOS and Android were relatively latecomers that arrived with a more competitive product (iOS because it was much better than the previous generation, and Android because it borrowed the ideas from iOS and was free.)

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#123

Post by rubicon33 »

berberous wrote: post #93
rubicon33 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been a strong advocate for VR since 2016. Over the last 6+ years I've managed to convince family and friends to all jump in and pickup VR, mostly the Quest 2. What I can say is, the vast majority of them don't use their headset at all anymore. It sits on a shelf collecting dust, out of batteries, only to be picked up on the extremely rare occasion where they want to try it out again, and then after about 30-45 m…

It’s still early. Within 10 years, I’d be surprised if headsets and software haven’t improved enough that it’s reached a tipping point where many more people do use it consistently.

I sure hope so. VR right NOW is amazing and fun, so if it becomes more accessible, comfortable, and standardized, I think it has a chance at breaking into the mainstream. It's going to take some serious electrical and hardware engineering though to get the form factor small and comfortable enough that people don't find it a huge pain.

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#125

Post by croes »

xwdv wrote: post #70
croes wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The leaked specs of the Quest 3 don't look like a big leap.

Cheaper, faster, much better optics: any two of those would be good, all three is incredible.

Cheaper? Compared to the pro not the Quest 2. And the resolution is still too low.

Better than the Quest 2 but not a big leap

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#126

Post by serf »

irrational wrote: post #66
monero-xmr wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have friends that got married, never had kids, and spend large chunks of their free time in MMORPGs, League of Legends, and a seemingly endless array of virtual-based entertainment. They also seem to get a lot of personal meaning and satisfaction from nerd pop culture like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings which is evidence that their rich fantasy lives have such deep meaning for them. So I find it totally plausi…

> So I find it totally plausible that a huge amount of people would spend large amounts of time in a more immersive virtual world I, on the other hand, know nobody that uses virtual worlds. I find it plausible that a tiny amount of people would spend large amounts of time in a more immersive virtual world. I find it completely implausible that a huge amount of people would.

>I find it completely implausible that a huge amount of people would.

there are 2.5 billion adult gamers in the world. A good percentage of that are partaking in games that easily qualify as virtual worlds.

no personal anecdote needed, huge amounts of people are already spending time in places that qualify as virtual worlds.

Our interfaces are clunky, and you can shift 'virtual world' around to mean something else, but it feels evident to me that this isn't an uncommon pastime/desire among people.

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#127

Post by sushid »

nine_k wrote: post #41
jjeaff wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to look like a visionary leader when people will rewrite history for you. Facebook was famously late to mobile and almost missed the boat. Luckily, they had the resources to plow into catching up around 2012.

Who were the mobile pioneers who blazed the trail? Where are they now? Let's exclude Apple and Google from the competition because they own the mobile platforms.

Not sure if you were using Facebook in 2012/2013 but their implementation was horrendous. Everyone bemoaned its lack of true mobile first design while other apps were responsive and sleek.

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#128

Post by omeze »

irrational wrote: post #66
monero-xmr wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have friends that got married, never had kids, and spend large chunks of their free time in MMORPGs, League of Legends, and a seemingly endless array of virtual-based entertainment. They also seem to get a lot of personal meaning and satisfaction from nerd pop culture like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings which is evidence that their rich fantasy lives have such deep meaning for them. So I find it totally plausi…

> So I find it totally plausible that a huge amount of people would spend large amounts of time in a more immersive virtual world I, on the other hand, know nobody that uses virtual worlds. I find it plausible that a tiny amount of people would spend large amounts of time in a more immersive virtual world. I find it completely implausible that a huge amount of people would.

Games like Gorilla Tag and VRChat have tens of millions of monthly users. They are on a hardware devices that give most people nausea after 30 mins. Meta has the most popular hardware by far. Seems huge

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#129

Post by roflyear »

neel8986 wrote: post #12

Meta is still a 600B company and large credit goes to Zukerberg. His insight into jumping to mobile at the very beginning, making critical acquisitions, relentlessly going to new geographies, investment in AI all played off. Every major company made mistake including Google ( Google Plus ), Microsoft ( Windows phone ) and apple ( entire 90s ). A company making mistake just means they are still taking risks and not sa…

Worth 600b until it isn't

Re: A morale crisis after multiple Meta layoffs

#130

Post by nradov »

bink wrote: post #30
neel8986 wrote: post #12

Meta is still a 600B company and large credit goes to Zukerberg. His insight into jumping to mobile at the very beginning, making critical acquisitions, relentlessly going to new geographies, investment in AI all played off. Every major company made mistake including Google ( Google Plus ), Microsoft ( Windows phone ) and apple ( entire 90s ). A company making mistake just means they are still taking risks and not sa…

Their focus on making Facebook for mobile platforms was smart, their efforts to make a mobile phone were late and substandard. By critical acquisitions I assume you mean Instagram and WhatsApp. Both were anti-competitive attempts to stave off becoming the next MySpace (but also successful). Everything else on the list of acquisitions looks like gambles that did not pay off. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_merge…

Facebook had no real efforts to make their own mobile phone.

https://nypost.com/2023/03/21/mark-zuckerberg-asked-facebook...

They did a brief collaboration with HTC on a custom Android skin back in 2013 but that appears to have been their only major effort in the handheld device space.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_First?wprov=sfla1

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