Company against the word 'metaverse'

Apple CEO Timothy Donald Cook says the word 'meta-universe' is still misunderstood by the vast majority of the world. He said this in an interview with the Dutch news agency Bright.

"I always think it's important that people understand what it is we're talking about. And I'm really not sure that the average person can tell you what the meta universe is," Cook noted. He explained that this is why Apple avoids mentioning the meta-universe in presentations and working papers.

Metaworld is a science fiction term that refers to the idea of a three-dimensional Internet that is accessed using VR helmets or virtual reality glasses instead of standard TVs, monitors and smartphone displays.

It's worth noting that the word "meta-universe" was only mentioned once in Apple's earnings reports this year, compared to 36 mentions in the earnings reports of Meta, which is led by Mark Zuckerberg.

However, following Facebook's name change and the announcement last autumn that it was investing $10 billion in creating a so-called meta-universe, the iPhone maker has distinguished itself from the wider tech industry by its apparent refusal to join Mark Zuckerberg's latest obsession.

Instead, Apple has focused its new technological investment specifically on augmented reality.

When asked by analyst Timothy Donald Cook in January this year about Apple's role in the meta-universe space, he replied that Apple is "always exploring new and emerging technologies", and pointed to the company's 14,000 AR Kit apps in the App Store.

Previously, Timothy Donald Cook said that soon people will no longer be able to imagine their lives without AR (augmented reality) technology. According to him, the innovation will become as important for humanity as the emergence of the Internet.