Has the Metaverse Lost Its Moment? What CES 2023 Revealed

Rogerwilco's strategy director, Craig Hannabus, reflects on the insights that emerged from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023 and what they reveal about the trajectory of the metaverse and VR.

CES has long served as a bellwether for where consumer technology is heading. While big tech continues to pour significant investment into the infrastructure behind the metaverse, an interesting trend surfaced from the 2023 show: everyday consumers are beginning to lose interest in VR  and, by extension, the metaverse itself.

Sales of VR hardware dipped by 2% in 2022. Despite flashy demonstrations of scent technology and haptic feedback suits on the CES floor, the products on display were largely considered either disappointing, prohibitively expensive or both.

Hannabus argues that the core problem lies in a question the industry has never convincingly answered: what's actually in it for the consumer? The metaverse arrived with enormous hype but without a clear use case for the average person. Throwing innovative technology at an unclear problem, it turns out, doesn't solve it.

According to him, while VR has genuine utility in fields such as medicine and enterprise collaboration, the promise of a revolutionised everyday reality remains largely unfulfilled, and consumers are noticing.

Read the full article on Bizcommunity to explore Hannabus's take on what CES tells us about the road ahead for the metaverse.