In five years, 40% of large organizations worldwide will use a combination of Web3, AR Cloud and Digital Twins in Metaverse projects aimed at revenue, research and advisory firm Gartner predicted Monday at its IT Symposium in Orlando, Fla. Was.

Gartner’s Metaverse prediction was part of a top 10 list of strategic technology trends released at the event.

The firm envisions a metaverse as a “collective virtual 3D shared space created virtually by the convergence of augmented physical and digital reality.” It is consistent and provides better immersive experiences, it added.

A full metaverse would be device independent and not owned by a single vendor, Gartner continued, and would be a virtual economy enabled by digital currencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Gartner’s prediction raised the eyebrows of some analysts. “It’s a little aggressive,” said Mark N. Venna, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research in San Jose, Calif.

“The primary headwind for Metaverse in business is the arrival of the actual Metaverse app, which will have wider appeal with enterprise accounts,” he told TechNewsWorld.

“Some of this exists – and will continue to surface – in operational areas like inventory management, logistics and other verticals, but unless there is a Metaverse app, or app, that increases productivity, I think 40% is a stretch. ,” added Vena.

Metaverse or Metaverse?

Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research, a consumer technology advisory firm in New York City, also sees some of the challenges that could hinder the spread of the metaverse in the enterprise.

“At a core level, we need improvements in device size and power efficiency and broader applications beyond the manufacturing, engineering and other industrial applications we see today,” he told TechNewsWorld.

“Beyond these AR-related improvements, however, there are open questions as to whether the Metaverse will evolve as a single, widely accessible platform like the Web, or whether companies will largely build their own applications as they go. Let’s do it with cloud technology. Today,” he continued.

“However,” Rubin said, “we’re starting to see some encouraging standard-setting here, like the Metaverse Standards Forum.”

Facebook’s owner Meta may also be contributing to the Metaverse traction problems, maintained Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst of Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Ore.

“Facebook’s efforts are so bad that they are casting a cloud over the entire segment and, ironically, they are the biggest investors in it,” he told TechNewsWorld.

“Facebook is effectively giving a big indication on this segment that it’s fake,” he said, “even though Nvidia’s efforts seem to be working far better and are being implemented well by firms like BMW. This demonstrates the potential that Facebook is destroying right now.”

need patience

Impatience may also play a role in the company’s Metaverse persistence, noted Quinn Mai, CEO of Coulter, a digital marketing agency in New York City.

“As brands enter the metaverse, they are often disappointed upon arrival, not realizing that this is still a nascent but evolving platform,” she told TechNewsWorld. “They don’t see a large number of users in the metaverse like Decentraland or The Sandbox, and then back off.”

“Persistence is important because the technology that drives Web3 is evolving rapidly and developer activity is growing rapidly, so it is important for brands to experiment now so that they can scale their Web3 projects as they grow. “

“With the recession in the US and the economic warnings from the IMF, many brands are withdrawing from Web3 and focusing on short-term issues,” she continued. “However, like Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, brands that do not innovate will be left behind.”

“Web3 adoption will be driven by Gen Z, which is 25% of the world’s population, so brands that don’t stay the course won’t prosper or join the group in 2027,” Mai said.

‘SuperApps’

Gartner also predicted that by 2027, 50% of the world’s population would be daily active users of multiple “superapps”.

SuperApps combine the features of an app, platform and ecosystem into a single program. Apart from its own set of functionalities, it provides a platform for add-ons by third parties.

“While most examples of SuperApps are mobile apps, the concept can also be applied to desktop client applications, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, the key being that a SuperApp can consolidate and replace multiple apps for customer or employee use. Gartner Vice President and analyst Frances Karamouzis said in a statement.

Team Virtual Meeting Space (Image Credit: Microsoft)

Enderle said multi-function apps have always attracted users.

“A single app that does a lot of things has always been attractive over multiple single-centric apps because people don’t want the complexity and learning curve associated with multiple apps,” he said. “So the relative simplicity, perceived cost, and usefulness of SuperApps make them attractive.”

SuperApps have been in the news lately because Elon Musk said he wants to buy Twitter as an accelerator to build one, Rubin explained.

“The model for this is WeChat in China, which is used for tasks as diverse as reading news, making payments and praising cars,” he said. “WeChat was able to develop its functionality partly because there were no major OS vendors and little competition from outside China.”

“There are high odds of it repeating its success outside of China,” he continued. Yet, for example, Apple already supports playing games and sending money through its Messages app, and Telegram supports add-on bot applications that can provide a lot of functionality beyond messaging. “

sustainable technology

One strategic trend that surpasses all others is sustainability, Gartner said. It cited one of its recent surveys where CEOs pointed out that environmental and social change are now the top three priorities for investors, followed by profit and revenue.

This means, it continued, that executives should invest more in innovative solutions designed to address [environmental, social, and governance] Seeking to meet sustainability goals.

,[I]n 2023, providing technology will not be enough,” said David Groombridge, Gartner’s vice president and analyst, in a statement.

“These themes are influenced by environmental, social and governance expectations and regulations, which translate into a shared responsibility to implement sustainable technologies,” he said in a statement.

“With future generations in mind, every technology investment will need to be set against its impact on the environment,” he said. “Sustainable by default as an objective requires sustainable technology.”