Author | Chenglin Pua (Malaysia) editor | Yu Baicheng typesetting | Wang Jilongyan
On November 2, 2021, Ignite 2021, Microsoft's annual technology event, opened online. The conference introduced the innovative technologies, application fields and industry scenarios developed by Microsoft in the fields of metaverse, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and big data, hybrid office, digital transformation and digital security.
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Microsoft Ignite 2021
Among them, it is worth noting that Microsoft officially announced its entry into the Metaverse. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at the Ignite virtual conference that Microsoft will explore metaverse technology and join this digital world with a series of other big brands and enterprises. This is after Facebook (now renamed Meta) announced that it will transform into a metaverse company in the next 5-10 years, and another technology giant has entered the metaverse field.
Nadella shared, “As the digital and physical worlds merge, we are creating a whole new metaverse. In a sense, the metaverse allows us to embed computing in the real world, and the real world in the real world.” Computing, thereby bringing a real sense of presence to any digital space. Most importantly, we are able to bring our humanity with us and choose how we want to experience the world and who we want to interact with.”
Frank writes: “Metaverse will be a shared experience that supports both the real and digital worlds. As businesses accelerate their digital transformation, Metaverse can help people get together in a digital environment, using virtual avatars/avatars to make meetings more comfortable, And foster creative collaboration from around the world."
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Microsoft's metaverse development plan
Microsoft plans to grow the Metaverse with two new initiatives.
The first initiative, called "Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces," offers a fresh perspective to help managers gain insight into how customers move and interact in spaces such as retail stores, employees on factory floors, and how to optimize in hybrid work environments Health and safety management. People will be able to interact in any space, from retail stores to factory floors, through AI-driven models and observational data.
The second initiative is called "Mesh for Microsoft Teams", which will add a mixed reality function called Mesh to Microsoft's existing Team function (online meeting), allowing people from different locations to join through the productivity tool Teams Collaborate, hold meetings, send messages, work on shared documents, and more with a shared holographic experience. The feature also allows people to experience an immersive space with a personalized 3D avatar.
A beta version of the first program will launch in early December, while the second will launch in the first half of 2022.
The second product is mainly aimed at ordinary users. The virtual experience collaboration platform Mesh is directly implanted into the existing product Microsoft Teams, which will improve users' sense of virtual experience. That's part of it, Microsoft says, and the ultimate goal of the second initiative is to combine the company's mixed reality and HoloLens with conferencing and video calling capabilities that anyone can participate in.
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hardware layout
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Nadella said that the company's video game device Xbox (Microsoft's gaming device, similar to Sony's PS5) will focus on integrating the Metaverse into games on their devices in the future.
In fact, in addition to gaming devices, Microsoft has also developed AR/VR related devices called HoloLens. Now it has been iterated to the second generation. HoloLens, a pair of mixed reality smart glasses developed and manufactured by Microsoft.
HoloLens 2 was announced at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain on February 24, 2019, with a pre-sale price of $3,500.
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Microsoft HoloLens device
Microsoft needs to improve the price/performance ratio of its products, so as to occupy a place in the virtual reality product market. In addition, it is rumored that Apple is also actively researching virtual reality equipment, which is expected to be launched in 2022. Apple, which is good at combining hardware and software, is bound to be a formidable opponent when it enters this field in the future.
Market share of virtual reality equipment
Source: Counterpoint's Global VR Gear Report
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Improve social experience
Microsoft Teams will introduce new 3D avatars/avatars to advance the Metaverse environment. Users don't need to wear a VR headset to use them. These avatars can represent the user himself in 2D and 3D meetings, and if they don't want to turn on the webcam, an animated version of the virtual avatar/avatar can be selected.
Jared Spataro, vice president of Microsoft Teams, said: "People today face a dilemma when participating in digital meetings. They must choose whether to turn on the camera or turn off the camera. Turning on the camera means you are front and center, and people will see you. every move you make. Turning off the camera means you have very little social movement, and it’s hard to give the feeling that you’re fully engaged in the meeting.”
This also leads us to wonder whether our colleagues who turned off the video and kept silent are really participating in the meeting. Microsoft's Human Factors Lab has simulated these situations and found that they can make people feel physically and mentally exhausted and stressed. They also found that when you have an avatar or headshot, 70% of meeting participants feel that person is there. "Choosing Microsoft's 3D avatar will be able to project your own body language, mirror your movements through a webcam or otherwise, without necessarily turning on the camera and causing stress," Kipman said.
Microsoft will use artificial intelligence (AI) to listen to the user's voice and then animate the user's avatar/avatar. If you switch to a more immersive 3D meeting scene, those animations will also include a hand raising your avatar when the user taps the raise hand option, or an animated emoji around your avatar. Immersive spaces are where Microsoft thinks this mesh integration will be most useful, especially when building out the Metaverse.
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Engagement with avatars and avatars
Microsoft says Teams is on track to start using these avatars, or avatars, in the first half of 2022. Microsoft's goal is that by the first half of next year, users will be able to enter immersive virtual spaces. Metaverse’s previously announced vision for the Metaverse bears some resemblance to the platform Microsoft demonstrated. Users can create their own 3D brand space on both platforms, and people's avatars are cute and cartoon.
It can be seen that Microsoft is actively improving the experience of the Metaverse. The current sense of experience is a shortcoming of the Metaverse, and improving the experience of the Metaverse will help increase people's willingness to participate in the Metaverse. Microsoft believes that in social, presence, talking to people, eye contact and reaction will all be crucial; and improving social sense can add many advantages to Microsoft's Metaverse.
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The Infinite Possibilities of the Metaverse
Microsoft believes that Metaverse is "the pinnacle of intelligent cloud and intelligent edge". Its essence is to build a digital world that is permanently and stably connected to the real world. Share experiences with the digital world. For example, in the process of accelerating the digital transformation of enterprises, Metaverse can allow people to meet in a digital environment. With the help of digital avatars and more creative collaboration methods, people can communicate with each other more freely from all corners of the world.
The definition of the metaverse and what it includes varies among stakeholders, but there is no denying that the competition is becoming more and more fierce as the possibilities are endless. In fact, Microsoft pushed for a Metaverse inside Teams just days after Facebook changed its name to Meta.
The liquidity of Metaverse lies in building a trading market and extracting a certain percentage of commission from it. Human beings can experience what the real world can do in a mature metaverse; things that cannot be experienced in the real world can be realized or experienced in the metaverse. According to this logic, the economy of a mature metaverse will be larger than the economy of the real world. This gives unlimited imagination.
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growing market
On November 1, 2021, Microsoft announced its latest quarterly financial report. The financial report shows that in the three months ending September 30, 2021, Microsoft's revenue reached US$45.32 billion, a year-on-year increase of 22%; net profit was US$20.51 billion, a year-on-year increase of 48%. Among them, the game business revenue increased by 501 million US dollars compared with the same period last year, an increase of about 16%.
Driven by the epidemic last year, the "stay-at-home economy" game industry experienced a round of growth. In the previous Microsoft financial report, the number of Xbox Game Pass subscribers increased by 37% in the year ending June 30, 2021, but failed to meet Microsoft’s previous target (48%). Although it did not meet Microsoft's expectations, it also shows the rapid growth of the gaming industry.
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Metaverse has both social and game attributes. The game market is still a fast-growing big cake until now. According to a Newzoo report on the game industry, consumer spending on games will grow to $196 billion by 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of +9.0% from 2018 to 2022.
The Rapid Growth of the Gaming Market
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Source: Newzoo report
