Apple CEO sees a ‘lot of potential’ in the metaverse, investing accordingly

Speaking at the company’s earnings for Q1 of 2022, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the company sees a “lot of potential” in the metaverse and invests in the technology.

Tim Cook addressed the idea of the “metaverse” during Apple’s Q1 2022 earnings call with analysts and investors. In response to a question from Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, Cook explained that Apple sees a “lot of potential in this space.”

Short of saying the term, the CEO said he sees a “lot of potential” in the metaverse.

When Cook was asked about metaverse, he said, as quoted by AppleInsider, “we’re a company in the business of innovation, and we have over 14,000 AR apps in the App Store,” suggesting that this number will rise with further investment.

It should be noted that Cook never used the word “metaverse” in his answer. Cook also highlighted that Apple had increased its expense on Research and Development. “There’s quite a bit of investment going into things that aren’t on the market at this point,” Cook noted to investors and analysts.

For the uninitiated, the metaverse is being envisioned as a new world order really, where your services could be offered virtually in exchange for other virtual assets or Cryptocurrencies. The way to look at it is that your existence will be entangled with the digital world in a much deeper, complex way. On one level, it does sound dystopic, and most examples in popular fiction where the virtual and physical world have merged live up to that image.

It seems that Apple has been pushing for mainstream AR experiences since it added LiDAR to the iPad Pro and iPhone 12 Pro. Apple is also rumored to be working on a VR headset that could release in 2022. This headset would allow people to interact with the metaverse.

Earlier, in November 2020, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that he is a crypto investor and holds digital coins. Cook was answering Andrew Ross Sorkin, who was hosting the New York Times’ two-day online summit. The Apple CEO shared his thoughts on the hot topic of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. However, Cook dismissed the idea of accepting cryptocurrency via Apple Pay anytime soon. He explained that Apple is “looking at” crypto but has no plans to launch such functionality in Apple Pay.

Apple is reportedly planning to launch its first AR/VR headset product as soon as this year.

Metaverse-related services, such as AR apps, could flip Apple’s revenue mix, said analyst Neil Shah of Counterpoint Research.

“There is a significant upside to Apple’s services business potentially crossing its iPhone in the next five years,” Shah said.

Last June, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he “believes we’re right on the cusp of” the Metaverse and spoke glowingly of its potential, predicting that users will one day use metaverses to “simulate the future,” while Nvidia’s new Voyager campus shows what it will look like when the Metaverse meets the real world.