Apple's Tim Cook On The Metaverse: 'I'm Not Sure The Average Person Can Tell You What It Is'

Major tech companies are eyeing the metaverse's potential, which has become a hot buzzword in the market. But Apple CEO Tim Cook has a different opinion about it. 

In a recent interview with a Dutch media outlet, Cook said that most people are unclear about the term "metaverse."  

"I always think it's important that people understand what something is. And I'm not sure the average person can tell you what the metaverse is," Cook told the outlet.

Talking about virtual reality, he said it is good, but it's not a way to "live your whole life."

Also Read: Apple's Tim Cook On His Biggest Dispute With Steve Jobs: 'His Way Was More Creative And More Different'

"It's something you can really immerse yourself in. And that can be used in a good way. But I don't think you want to live your whole life that way. VR is for set periods, but not a way to communicate well. So I'm not against it, but that's how I look at it," the Apple CEO explained. 

About augmented reality, Cook said there are already several different AR apps on the App Store, and there's room for the technology to "go much, much further." 

"I think AR is a profound technology that will affect everything. Imagine suddenly being able to teach with AR and demonstrate things that way. Or medically, and so on. As I said, we are going to look back and think about how we once lived without AR," Cook added. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been advocating for the metaverse for quite a long time. Recently, he said the metaverse is a "massive opportunity" for several reasons, and he feels strongly that developing metaverse platforms will "unlock hundreds of billions of dollars."

However, a recent Bank of England report suggested that the growth of an open and decentralized metaverse may scale up the existing risks from crypto assets and could cause financial instability. 

Photo: Courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org