2025 to Be a Key Year for Meta’s Augmented and Virtual Reality, Says CTO

Alright, so I stumbled across this little nugget of wisdom from Andrew “Boz” Bosworth over at Meta—y’know, the dude who’s been there since, like, forever (one of the first 15 engineers or something). Earlier this year, he dropped a memo saying 2025 could be, well, make-or-break for Reality Labs. It’s either gonna be the year they turn into rockstars with their AR/VR stuff or, uh, a total faceplant into the metaverse void. So dramatic, right?

But nowadays, Boz seems pretty jazzed about the whole thing. Fingers crossed, though, ’cause the market’s the real boss here.

He’s like, “This year feels major,” while chatting away on Bloomberg Technology—Thursday, I think it was. Those Ray Ban AI glasses? Yeah, apparently a big deal. People bought, like, over 2 million pairs. And that was before they even dropped the AI goodies in them. They even trumped old-school Ray Bans in sales. Who would’ve thought?

Over at Google, they’re teaming up with those stylish gigs, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, to whip up some Android XR glasses. And Apple? Rumor has it they’re aiming to splash into the scene with their smart specs by 2026. Whoa, suddenly everyone’s in the game. Some serious shift from just tinkering behind the scenes with AR tech to actually being out there and pulling in the crowd. Oh, and competition, of course—can’t ever escape that, right? Boz is all like, “This year’s progress is like, super crucial.”

But here’s the kicker: doesn’t matter who else is jumping on the bandwagon if the folks out there don’t dig Meta’s AR/VR gear. That’s the crux—no buyers, no party.

Boz throws down this nugget from his chats with Sheryl Sandberg (remember her?). She’s got this mantra: companies usually crash not ’cause the competition eats their lunch, but ’cause they mess up their own playbook. So Boz is trying to get the team laser-focused on nailing their own goals, rather than stressing over rivals.

Oh, and Boz wrapped it up with this, kinda like a plot twist: they’ve got these big, bold plans for the year. He wonders if, by December, they’ll have smashed it out of the park or not. And if, in five years, they’ll look back and say, “Hey, that was actually enough?”

So, there you go. It’s the kind of tech soap opera where you just have to wait and see. Who’d have thought, huh?