Can Meta still make the metaverse?
Meta is clearly all in on AI, and for good reason. With models like Llama, products like the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, and a monetization plan like Facebook ads, it’s one of the companies best positioned to make AI really work. But it wasn’t that long ago that Meta was making a different, just as huge bet on the metaverse. It’s right there in the company name! So what does Meta really want to be when it grows up?
On this episode of The Vergecast, we start by digging into exactly that question. The Verge’s Alex Heath joins to discuss everything from smart glasses sales numbers to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to bring back “OG Facebook.” We also talk about a recent memo from CTO Andrew Bosworth that suggested 2025 will be the year the metaverse either takes off or falls apart. As all this is happening, of course, Zuckerberg is rapidly changing his company’s political stances and more forcefully declaring his own values. Meta never seems to stop changing, but this change feels bigger than most.
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After that, we pivot to another company in the midst of even bigger change. The Verge‘s Chris Welch takes us through the last year at Sonos, in which the company launched a pretty good pair of headphones — and a new app so disastrously bad it overshadowed everything else Sonos shipped. Now there’s a new management team, another new product line coming, and lots of questions left as to whether Sonos can win back the fans it built over years and lost in a matter of weeks.
Finally, on the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!), we answer a question about business cards. Because it may be 2025, but business cards refuse to die. And so we need something to do with them.
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started:
- Mark Zuckerberg tells Meta employees to ‘buckle up’ in internal meeting
- Meta says this is the make or break year for the metaverse
- Meta’s Ray-Bans smart glasses sold more than 1 million units last year
- Meta’s AR / VR hardware roadmap through 2027
- Meta CTO says the company is working to ‘catch’ leakers
- Zuck wants to bring the “OG Facebook” back.
- The Sonos app fiasco: how a great audio brand nearly ruined its reputation
- Sonos CEO Patrick Spence steps down after disastrous app launch
- Sonos’ interim CEO hits all the right notes in first letter to employees
- Sonos Arc Ultra review: don’t call it a comeback (yet)
- Sonos Ace review: was it worth it?
- After a bruising year, Sonos readies its next big thing: a streaming box
- Adobe Scan