Yesterday, Meta announced that it is taking the next step towards "the vision of a more open computing platform in the metaverse", announcing that it is opening up its operating system to third-party manufacturers to provide more choices for consumers and a better and larger ecosystem for developers.
In the announcement, Meta referred to the original "Meta Quest OS" as "Meta Horizon OS" and announced three of the first third-party partners: ASUS ROG, Lenovo and Xbox, and emphasized the deep partnership with Qualcomm.
Meta also announced improvements to the ecosystem. Integrating App Lab into the main store (also renamed Horizon Store) category to make the content more visible to players rather than opening App Lab specifically, secondly, developing a spatial application architecture that allows developers to port or develop content to MR mode using familiar tools, and finally, Meta says that Horizon OS will support access to multi-platform content such as Xbox, Steam, Google Play, etc.
As Meta said, this move will help them usher in a new era, and at the same time, it will also give us a glimpse of the underwater surface of Meta's iceberg.
写作Horizon,名为Social
Meta's literal meaning this time is not difficult to understand, it seems to be a renaming of the operating system, but it is actually a convergence and integration of the business.
All software-related businesses, including operating systems, app stores, and even App Labs, have been integrated under the name "Horizon". All hardware still uses the famous "Quest".
This is the case for many larger companies, such as Apple's iPad and iPadOS, which also refer to hardware and software systems, respectively, which will give the public more clarity about their business, and will also be beneficial for internal management and development.
However, the difference is that Apple's software uses "OS", while Meta emphasizes "Horizon". Why is that?
I believe that many people think of Meta's social platform Horizon World when they see Horizon, which is responsible for filling Meta's vision of the ultimate social form of the metaverse. Horizon World's custom identity, including its design language, has long been integrated into its operating system.
As Meta said in the announcement, the name was chosen to reflect its vision for a computing platform built around people and connections, as well as to promote it as the shared social fabric of the future. This is also in line with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's grand desire to build his human social empire that he has repeatedly mentioned in different interviews.
Therefore, Horizon, which is labeled "social", has naturally become the new name of the operating system that is bound to have social attributes.
Meta, which politely rejects Google, is replicating Google
In early March of this year, The Information reported that Google and Meta held a meeting late last year, and the two companies discussed the possibility of introducing Android XR to Meta's headset, but Meta politely declined.
Google's idea is that instead of letting everyone use the Meta Quest system, which is a variant of Android, they can just use Android and they can make money from it. After all, according to the data, in 2021 alone, the Android system generated billions of dollars for Google.
But Meta also has its own abacus. First of all, from the underlying logic to the real operating system suitable for VR, a lot of transformation is required, and once it cooperates with Google, the attribution of this transformation achievement is not easy to divide.
Second, maintaining such a partnership could prevent Meta from becoming the voice of the next generation of computing platforms.
Judging by the results so far, Google's cooperation is likely to speed up Meta's process. After rejecting Google's invitation to cooperate, Meta apparently intends to run its platform independently and cooperate with third-party hardware manufacturers in the role of Android to achieve complete "de-Androidization".
But as the saying goes, there is nothing new under the sun, and history is a wheel, forward and repeated.
Back in 2005, Google played out the same story. That year, Google acquired Android Inc. with the goal of making Android an open mobile operating system, making it the standard operating system for a wide range of smartphones and mobile devices. In 2007, Google entered into partnerships with companies including HTC, Motorola, Samsung, LG and Google's Motorola Mobility to promote the development and adoption of Android.
In 2008, the first smartphone with Android, the T-Mobile G1 (also known as HTC Dream), was launched, marking the official entry of Android into the market. Since then, Android has grown rapidly, attracting more and more manufacturers and developers to join, becoming one of the most popular mobile operating systems in the world.
Now it seems that Meta is likely to repeat what Google did back then. The acquisition has been completed, development has been promoted, and the goal of applying the system to third-party hardware has been achieved.
However, there is still a difference, Android is a groundbreaking experience, and it is a relatively innovative open source model (although it is not completely open source). But Meta Horizon is actually still standing on the shoulders of giants.
At the same time, the companies that cooperated with Google at that time had strong achievements in the mobile phone business, and the Android system pushed them to enter the era of mobile Internet smartphones. But at present, the few companies that Meta has cooperated with are not very successful in the VR business.
In addition, after all, Android is still used at the bottom, and Meta may also face problems such as intellectual property rights, anti-competition laws, and false publicity.
Meta is open to third parties, and the founder of Oculus is not positive
Meta's opening up of its operating system to third-party hardware seems to be a good thing — at least for the industry, it may allow more companies with more influence in production, sales, and promotion to participate in building a mature VR consumption system.
But for Meta, it may not be optimistic, and at least the two Oculus founders are not positive.
John Carmack, the original creator of Meta Horizon today, doesn't think it's a good idea to open up systems to third-party hardware.
In terms of hardware, Carmack believes that even if it is open to third-party systems, it will not allow them to build a cheaper and easier headset than the Quest, which is almost sold at cost price.
This will also be a drag on Quest's software development, after all, in order to ensure that the system can satisfy the partners and attract more customers, they have to put down the production of more high-quality headsets and turn to the development of systems that will satisfy customers. This wastes a lot of time and manpower.
In addition, Carmack also believes that Meta's approach cannot be called "open source", but simply "shared with partners". This point is very sharp to point out that Meta is not as open as it says it is at the moment, but has carefully selected so-called partners, but such cooperation is not costly and is not worth "fanfare".
And Palmer Luckey, another founder of Oculus, also showed a negative attitude in interviews with foreign media.
He said that opening up to third parties was something they had planned for a decade. In a 2014 Bloomberg interview, then-Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe said, "If we really want a billion people to use VR (which is our goal), we can't aim to sell 1 billion of our own devices." We're having an open conversation with any partner who wants to get into VR, and there's a lot of interest right now. ”
They did do the same in the future, including the Gear VR with Samsung and the VR headset with Xiaomi. Expand your own battlefield by partnering with third-party software.
Regarding the fact that Meta has not opened up to third parties until now, a decade later, Lachey said: "I have always believed that Oculus should work hard to build a technology platform that will support every headset, even competitors such as the HTC Vive... It's always the right strategy, and hopefully it's not too late. ”
While this may be a bit late for the founders, the good news is that Meta has finally taken the right step. As for whether it can replicate the myth of Android and get rid of Android at the same time, Meta can only wait for consumers to vote with their feet.