The metaverse is called to be the next Internet revolution. Or, at least, that’s what a good handful of tech bigs like Meta, known until a few months ago as Facebook. The firm of Zuckerberg, possibly the one that rows with more force so that this kind of digital underworld crystallizes in the next decade, has been looking for qualified professionals for some time to achieve the objective. Also among the ranks of the competition. ‘
The Wall Street Journal‘points out that, in recent months, some 100 people have left the Microsoft Augmented Reality team and that many have done it, directly, to join the ranks of Meta.
from Microsoft are especially interested in those workers who have been directly related to the development of the HoloLens, the Augmented Reality glasses of the firm that, currently, are especially intended for use in industrial environments and of which it is estimated that 325,000 units have been marketed in 2021.
According to Microsoft employees consulted by the US media, some of its workers would be receiving offers that, practically, double their current salaries. It also points out that, in the last year, some 70 people have left the firm according to their LinkedIn profiles and that at least 40 would have done it to pass Meta. They also include several of the team leaders behind the creation of the HoloLens.
Hiring professionals familiar with the development of Augmented Reality devices, which the user can use to view digital content without ceasing to observe the environment in which they are located, makes perfect sense for Meta, since, till the date, technology has not developed any viewer of this type. The firm, on the contrary, has the most popular Virtual Reality glasses: the Oculus Quest 2. Likewise, it is estimated that it sold 75% of viewers of this type during 2021, according to a
research from analytics firm IDC.
Microsoft is not the only fishing ground where the company is looking for talent. According ‘
Bloomberg‘, Apple has started offering bonuses that can reach the $ 180,000 to some of its workers in order to prevent the brain drain to the Zuckerberg conglomerate. According to the aforementioned media, in recent months about 100 employees of the apple firm have left the company to become part of Meta.
It should be remembered that the relationships between the two technology companies – which are among the most influential in Silicon Valley– They have been quite deteriorated for a long time, largely due to the new privacy controls that Apple has implemented in iPhones. In addition, the company led by Tim Cook, like Zuckerberg’s, also has plans to start marketing Virtual and Augmented Reality devices. Specifically, analysts expect it to present its first device, a Mixed Reality viewer, before the end of 2022.
Lack of hands for the metaverse
The comings and goings of workers is nothing new in Silicon Valley. However, the difficulties in creating the metaverso they require competing companies to have the appropriate equipment. A few months ago, shortly before showing its vision of the metaverse during Facebook Connect, Meta announced that it planned to hire 10,000 European professionals to enable them to achieve the goal over the next five years. However, the company is not worth just anyone. On the contrary, you must have very specific requirements and knowledge. Y there are not many workers who, today, gather them.
“Currently there is little content for Virtual Reality because there are few people who develop it. And the people behind it are the same people who are going to have to develop the metaverse “, he explains in conversation with ABC Laura Raya |, doctor in computer engineering and director of the postgraduate programs in Extended Realities at the U-tad University Center.
The expert explains that it currently seems “more difficult for her to find enough people with knowledge of computer graphics and Virtual Reality for technologies to evolve. The problem is that a number of well-trained professionals are needed. ‘ In addition, he states that, at the moment, Meta is looking for “people who are graduated with a master’s degree in computer graphics and, if possible, with a doctorate in the same subject”: “There are not an infinite number of people who meet with those requirements.
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