Tech and communications giant Apple might be developing its own metaverse, recently posting several job offerings in the fields of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). One of the job listings calls explicitly for engineers experienced in the development of a “3D mixed-reality world,” for the Technology Development Group, the virtual reality division of the company.
Apple may be working on its own ‘Horizon Worlds’-type metaverse iteration
Apple posted a set of job listings on November 13 that may give some perspective on the direction the company is going with regards to metaverse tech.
According to Bloomberg, the company is currently searching for engineers to develop content for its incoming VR headset which, per reports, will have high-definition displays, a set of more than 10 cameras, and will pack Apple’s latest M2 chip, one of the quickest in the industry.
One of the job listings explicitly calls for engineers with knowledge of developing 3D mixed-reality worlds. The move could mean that Apple is already working on its own iteration of the Metaverse platform, where users can meet, interact, and build their own worlds, like Meta’s Horizon Worlds.
The job listing notes that the elected engineers will “build tools and frameworks to enable connected experiences in a 3D mixed-reality world.”
One of the job openings asked engineers to build a 3D video platform with content suitable to be experienced through virtual reality hardware. Technavio’s report on the future of the Metaverse in Entertainment, released on November 11, also predicts the rise of such experiences and expects it to become a trend in the coming years, fueling the growth of the interactive movie industry.
Apple’s Metaverse Apprehension
The company and its executives have been apprehensive about calling the different virtual experiences that are currently known as the metaverse, metaverse. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, believes that the term is too ambiguous and can be interpreted in many ways.
Cook told the publication Bright:
It’s always important to me that people have a good understanding of what something is. And I’m not really sure the average person can tell you what the metaverse is.
In contrast, Cook is a big believer in AR and what it might bring for adopters of the technology, describing it as “a profound technology that will affect everything.”
