This month, Gartner named its top Metaverse leaders, a selection of ten XR industry innovators leading the space to meet technology, market, and development goals.
Of its named XR innovators. Gartner named Niantic, MetaVRse, and Hadean as leaders in the technology side of Metaverse development, securing supply chains in the market.
Moreover, the firm named Nomoko, NVIDIA, and Soul Machines as market innovators completing demand-driven goals.
Finally, Gartner named Capgemini, Immerse, Uneeq, and Unity as leaders in metaverse products and business innovation.
Gartner named its industry innovators based on the firm’s field research over the past months, starting with a research publication at the start of the year.
Other Key Gartner Findings
The firm contacted roughly 195 technology solutions providers, including firms representing markets such as 3D capture, computing infrastructure, digital humans/avatars, digital twins, software, consulting, and spatial computing.
From its 195 firms, Gartner examined 52 Metaverse providers to determine its leading innovators. Gartner’s research found that “most” metaverse start-ups are adopting “too many use cases” without overwhelming success. Meanwhile, the most successful metaverse start-ups remain laser-focused on “very specific problems,” says Gartner Director Analyst Tuong Huy Nguyen.
Moreover, Nguyen’s research found that metaverse service providers rely on a range of integrated XR technologies which secure high-quality multip-user immersive experiences. Some of the technologies include networking solutions, HMDs, and AI.
While metaverse adopters show “substantial” interest in technology, Nguyen also found that most lack a proper understanding of the emerging solution. According to Gartner’s research, potential metaverse adopters do not understand the potential cost, use, or value of shared immersive experiences – which leads to misconceptions and misunderstanding of the emerging technology.
We Want the Metaverse, but We Do Not Understand it
Gartner’s research is insightful. It paints a picture of adopters who are excited about the technology space while not understanding it – a common trend across emerging technology markets, including XR, the metaverse, and AI. Again, as Nguyen notes, adoptors lack a proper understanding of the metaverse.
For example, in a StreetBees survey concerning the Apple Vision Pro headset, insights explained how those under 35 hold the most excitement for and are most willing to buy the Vision Pro while also remaining generally unaware of the product, its value and usage.
StreetBees further underpinned its figure with additional research highlighting how mixed the audience’s perception of the device is. For example, auidences are almost dead split, with 50 percent of questioned individuals (who are already aware of the Vision Pro) excited about the device. However, only a further 27 percent intend to buy it.
On the other hand, StreeBees found that 40 percent do not intend to purchase Apple’s device, and 33 percent of auidences are undecided.
Metaverse Deployment to Lead Industry 4.0 Innovation
Moreover, in a survey from Nokia and EY, researchers found that technology firms in the US, UK, and Brazil are leading enterprise-grade metaverse deployment and piloting. The US leads by 65 percent, the UK by 64 percent, and Brazil by 63 percent.
Digging into the figures further, 58 percent have either deployed or piloted at least one Metaverse-related use case in the workplace. Additionally, a further 95 percent of firms explained that Metaverse integration plans are on the roadmap for the next “two years.”
While audiences and end-users at large may not correctly understand the metaverse and its value, many enterprise clients no longer see the technology as hype. The survey found that 2 percent of questioned firms see the “Metaverse as a buzzword or a fad.”
Helping understand the business value of the metaverse is critical to adoption. For example, Nokia research found that firms can expect a capital expenditure reduction of 15 percent, a sustainability reduction of 10 percent, and a safety improvement reduction of 9 percent when integrating enterprise-grade metaverse solutions.
Businesses can feel the positives of the metaverse today. According to the report, 80 percent of the question firms that already implement metaverse solutions claim a significant or transformational impact on the workplace. Meanwhile, an additional 96 percent of questioned firms believe that Metaverse services can accelerate the deployment, adoption and monetization of Industry 4.0 solutions.
At the time of the report’s publication, Thierry E. Klein, the President of Bell Labs Solutions Research at Nokia, noted that it “is great to see that companies clearly believe in the power of the Metaverse for business value creation in both enterprise and industrial use cases.”
The Bigger Picture
Currently, international regulators are trying their best to understand the emerging metaverse space. Just last week, EU officials announced that metaverse solutions and service providers require no regulation… Yet.
The report highlights the importance and impact of metaverse solutions. However, EU regulators have no plans of intervention ahead of the launch of the EU metaverse initiative that attempts to boost understanding of the technology space and methods of governance – without direct interference from officials.
Despite EU regulators not believing intervention is required, the group spoke on marketplace-wide issues such as gatekeeping, which could significantly stifle competition.
EU regulators may have more plans underway as the space grows. Although currently, officials do not feel that close inspection is needed. Perhaps as audiences gain a better understanding and perception of the technology, it will lead to tighter regulation and monitoring of XR, the metaverse, and its related technology solutions.
