12 months on from the launch of our white paper Unreal estate: metaverse, extended reality and the future of our physical world, Apple has introduced its long-awaited foray into the world of extended reality: the Apple Vision Pro. It certainly didn’t go unnoticed that the phrase “spatial computing” dominated their messaging, with “metaverse” going unmentioned. At approximately 11:20am US Pacific time on 5 June, global online search activity for “spatial computing” consequently skyrocketed, but it was still dwarfed by “metaverse” (see below). What does this product announcement mean for the built world, and does it change the conversation about the metaverse’s declining hype since last year?
