Even with legs, VR devices face an uphill battle

Last week, Mark Zuckerberg announced an exciting new feature in his company’s metaverse platform — legs. (Cue the memes.)

Days later, The Information reported that Apple’s upcoming mixed reality device will have two downward-facing cameras to better capture leg movements.

Excitement around legs…

… underlines the fact that we’re still very much in the early days of mixed reality’s development — and the challenges these companies face in shifting impatient consumer outlooks.

While the technology improves, early adopters are spending less time with these products.

• Weekly teen use of these platforms has dropped 3% this year.
• The WSJ found that most users in Meta’s Horizon Worlds don’t return to the app after the first month.
• The Verge reported that Meta’s own employees “are barely using it.”

In other words, Apple will likely need more than legs to make mixed reality lucrative.