Is Extended Reality Virtual Insanity?

Will we laugh at skepticism about the Metaverse in years to come?

A 1995 Newsweek article authored by Cliff Stoll titled Why the Web Won’t be Nirvana prolifically mispredicted the impact of the Internet on our everyday lives. Stoll wasn’t alone in his diss on what is now a pervasive presence in every moment of our lives.

Skepticism about the Internet seems laughable now, but all the conversation around the metaverse begs the question: In 25 years, will we laugh at skepticism about the metaverse?

Insights from our inaugural TD SYNNEX Technology Ecosystem Benchmark Report, suggest that IT solution providers are sitting staunchly in the Stoll School of Cynicism. Only 14 percent plan to offer AR/VR Solutions in the next two years, despite market and industry analysts predicting a $800B metaverse revenue opportunity by 2024.

By the Numbers:

$400B

Forecasted channel-relevant revenue for technology platforms, software and hardware that power Augmented and Virtual Reality experiences.

5 %

IT Solution Providers who say they offer AR/VR solutions today, according to the Benchmark Report.

14 %

Percent who plan to add AR/VR Solutions to their portfolios in the next two years.

8 %

Industries incorporating AR/VR into their growth strategies now.

While a quick Google search of “will the metaverse fail?” produces more than 2.6 million results in half a second, technology ecosystem analysts see concrete extended reality applications across a broad set of sectors, including TD SYNNEX’s own VP of Mobility and Metaverse, Luc Van Huystee, who recently wrote on the topic:

However, while the major use case will be consumer, we should continue to expect extended reality to make parallel inroads into the enterprise space where business cases around training, design, development and support provide fertile ground for the technology in the workplace.

So where are those enterprise-wide opportunities?

Workplace of the Future: As more and more businesses reimagine the future of work post pandemic, interactive virtual work environments and connected workplaces are an area of focus. Businesses are looking at extended reality options that include multi-dimensional collaboration for remote workers and new recruits, training programs — from doctors practicing complicated surgical skills to customer service training for front-line retail, and virtual collaboration with vendors and clients.

Education for the Next Generation: Interactive environments can reshape how we teach children, whether it’s transporting them back to pivotal moments in history, giving them virtual access to field trips that might otherwise be unaffordable or reinventing the biology lab with virtual frog dissection (formaldehyde smell optional).

Healthcare: The pandemic certainly made telehealth a regular and mainstream approach to a doctor visit, but AR/VR is being studied to assist with pain relief and for therapists looking to help soldiers suffering from PTSD.

Public Sector: Similar to the approach from private business and AR/VR, governmental agencies are using the technology to improve training for firefighters to social servants, and some municipalities are contemplating how AR/VR can increase access to public transportation and build smart cities of the future.

These are just a few examples of forward thinking on the virtues of the virtual reality with real, practical and potentially life-saving and life-enhancing opportunities.

And as they increase in scope and use, the need for the underlying technologies, capabilities and expertise will continue to rise.

Aggregating all these ideas and perspectives is where the technology ecosystem shines. The channel offers communities and connectors who bring together the portfolio of hardware, software and services needed from cloud computing, to edge technologies to data, analytics and IOT, and — let’s not forget — financing.

Simplified to these core technologies, extended reality solution offerings aren’t an outlandish idea, by any stretch.

Which brings us back to our original question:

Will the metaverse fail?

Some out there might want it to. But others see its power to transform the world in ways that we still can’t comprehend.

For the technology ecosystem, the answer to the question should be simple: “It won’t fail if we don’t let it.”