Albert Einstein, the famous German-born theoretical physicist, can be quoted saying that if someone cannot explain it simply, "you don't understand it well enough."
Fast forward, in the modern days of the digital world where E=mc2 has gone way beyond just explaining nuclear fission and fusion, Meta, the company that becomes the parent of Facebook and others, cannot really describe its plan.
According to Meta, the company is no longer a social media company, once it becomes a metaverse company.
The thing is, it cannot really describe what the term is.
When the company released a Are We There Yet? series to make metaverse more appealing, Meta describes it as the "next phase of the internet."
"Everyone’s got questions about the metaverse," Meta said in a press materials about the show.
But Meta still doesn't understand how to communicate the value of the metaverse to people who aren't already in it.
This is because in reality, things are more than just that.
In Meta's Horizon Worlds for example, users can create new worlds that are accessible through the screens and VR headsets. But in others' perception, the metaverse can be a very different entity. Different companies developing the technology can have different opinions regarding the technology.
Ever since the metaverse has garnered so much attention, practically all tech companies are trying to at least understand the concept and embrace that trend.
The many in the competition may be a delight to Meta.
But one of them in particular, is not.
And that company Meta is not that fond of, is Apple.
Founder and CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg believes that Apple and his company are in a "very deep, philosophical competition" to build the metaverse, suggesting that the two tech giants are ready in the business to lure in more users into the metaverse's virtual reality/
The CEO also said to his employees, that the company is competing with Apple to determine “what direction the internet should go in."
What this really means, even Zuckerberg is uncertain about this metaverse.
He said that:
"And we believe that there is a lot to be done in specialization across different companies, and [that] will allow a much larger ecosystem to exist."
Since Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook the company to Meta, he has been pushing for the concept of interoperability for the metaverse.
Meta even helped created the Metaverse Open Standards Group with Microsoft, Epic Games, and others, to spur the creation of open protocols to let people easily move through future immersive, 3D worlds with their virtual goods.
After all, Zuckerberg considers the metaverse as the future of computing after mobile devices, and the future of connectivity after the internet.
But when Apple was missing, Zuckerberg was not at all surprised.
He said that Apple’s approach is building hardware and software that it can tightly control.
"I think it’s pretty clear that Apple is going to be a competitor for us, not just as a product but philosophically. We’re approaching this in an open way and trying to build a more open ecosystem. We’re trying to make more stuff interoperable with Android. We’re trying to develop the metaverse in a way where you can bring your virtual goods from one world to another," Zuckerberg said.