Today, there is the latest news about the iPhone 13 and Apple's supply chain.
On December 13, the latest news showed that Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms has merged the artificial intelligence team into the Reality Labs division that develops augmented reality and virtual reality products. This news was also confirmed by Meta.
It is clear that Meta is recently making a big push and investing in augmented reality/virtual reality to advance the development of metaverses. Meta's CEO even sees metaversity as the next stage in the development of the Internet. Which domestic suppliers will benefit from this, but VR/AR "cold rice fried hot" is really so fragrant?
01
Giant disturbance,
Benefiting from the industrial chain?
Meta's AI team was previously at the core of overseeing harmful content on Facebook's platform. With this adjustment in place, the team will focus more on virtual reality-related work. For example, to help Meta solve the content problem of the Quest VR virtual reality headset app, after all, the message shows that Oculus users have also been harassed by some inappropriate forms of content.
Obviously, the new appointment arrangement will push the Meta technical team to work more closely together, presenting the greatest charm of the metaverse. However, Meta's AI team has at least a few hundred employees, many of which focus on applying AI to specific products and will continue to work on current work.
To this end, editors also noted that as an entry product of the "meta-universe", AR/VR not only makes the attention of the capital market continue to soar, but also many industry chain manufacturers have also "rubbed the heat", indicating that they have products that can be used in the AR/VR field.
It is reported that in recent networks, exhibitions, forums and other activities, it is often possible to hear the discussion on this topic.
For example, as a domestic supplier of electronic components, Anjie Technology has also successfully "rubbed" the above concepts. Anjie Technology's business includes providing precision functional devices for manufacturers of smartphones, computers, and new energy vehicles.
In this regard, Anjie Technology mainly supports Meta's Oculus products with precision functional devices and precision structural parts, and it has now supplied Oculus Quest2 in mass production, which will support more products for the next generation of Oculus.
In fact, Anjie Technology will vigorously expand VR, AR, MR-related businesses, and continue to increase the scale of cooperative customers and revenue. Therefore, under the blessing of the meta-universe concept, Anjie Technology has also been popular with investors recently.
On the other hand, the editors learned today that for the "top six" of Taiwan's electronic foundry, they are also actively card space universe, led by Hon Hai Group, five major groups such as Quanta, Wistron, Compal, Pegatron, and Inventec are also synchronized with card slots, and they are gearing up to seize relevant business opportunities.
Editors found that Wistron and Quanta Group mainly locked in Meta server orders. The key is that Apple may be able to seize the meta-universe business opportunity and launch the first mixed reality (MR) headset as soon as 2022, which will be assembled by Pegatron.
Source: Economic Daily
02
What are the hidden worries, first of all?
Today, the editors learned from the industry that there are suppliers of the industrial chain in the above fields who pointed out that many of the customers who consult products now lack direction, and even the design ideas of their own products, and even the application scenarios are not clear enough, and there is a suspicion of catering to market hotspots.
Therefore, although the demand is indeed very much from the perspective of consultation alone, the progress of the project is slow, and the actual order cannot be talked about.
Therefore, the editors also have reason to believe that the above-mentioned domestic meta-universe VR/AR industry chain suppliers, this round seems to only encounter "good luck", when the industry trend is not clear, the related business is not universal and sustainable.
After all, even for a series of international giants such as Meta, if they want to have a large substantial development in the "meta-universe", they still have to continuously invest a lot of resources. At present, the field is in the early stage of development, and it is too early to rush to the inflammatory trend and negotiate the advantages.
Therefore, especially for some ordinary industrial chain suppliers, in the short term, there may be opportunities to improve the comprehensive gross profit margin through such products, but it is difficult to continue to expand the scale.
Is the future the world of VR or AR? In terms of product sales on the market in the past two years, VR terminals are the absolute mainstream on the market at present, and in the next few years, they will also be the main force of market shipments.
Relatively speaking, the overall development of VR products will be relatively mature, after the concept of metaverse is hot, more suppliers and terminals on the market are also starting from such products, and the demand for AR is still dominated by individual foreign manufacturers, and there are basically few in China.
Currently, Meta spends tens of billions of dollars annually on virtual reality and augmented reality research and development. Intriguingly, prior to this organizational restructuring of the AI team, two key figures in Meta's field of applied AI announced their departures, including vice president of applied AI research and product leader of the AI team. Although the two did not respond to this, it is likely that they were affected by this adjustment.
The change in Meta's chief technology officer also seems to have caused uneasiness among many people on the ARTIFICIAL team. After all, the former is a staunch supporter of AI technology. In addition to the AI team, Meta is also making other organizational changes, so that a number of executives have left this year. Meta's metaverse banner is gradually spreading. (Proofreader: Iris)
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