Meta Eyes Robotics: Social Media Giant’s Next Tech Move

• Humanoid robots are what Meta is expanding its scope into to build up a platform that can enable the construction of robots for other companies to plug into the robotics industry.
• Despite the failures of its previous hardware, Meta is relying on AI, the metaverse, and robotics to reinvent itself beyond social media and lay its future with emerging technologies.

Facebook was one of the four main social engines in the early 2000s, laying the foundation of the present digital age. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, however, has recently faced many challenges to diversify from its social media glory. Now, Meta is exploring humanoid robotics as an audacious new frontier. This new venture underscores the firm’s ambition to remain relevant in a world rapidly shifting toward artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and the metaverse.

Meta’s Ambitious Move Toward Robotics

According to a Bloomberg report, Meta has put together a new team to develop what it describes as household-working robots. The higher, overarching aim here is to create a kind of robotics development platform for other companies. If it succeeds, Meta may just position itself as an important player in the developing robotics industry on the heels of Android, which powers smartphones throughout the world.

This is part of a larger attempt by Meta to diversify and position itself so as not to be left out of the next round of technological evolution. While its social media applications gained momentum, the company found itself thwarted in its attempts to control the devices upon which the apps function. By the early 2000s, the smart device market had been seized first by Apple and then by Google, thereby leaving Meta virtually trailing in the wake of this major battle.

Meta, therefore, began pouring money into AI and metaverse developments to become the next-gen computing leader. This exploration into robotics is yet another crucial step toward cementing Meta’s foothold in tomorrow’s technology.

The Rush of Competition

Meta has never been a stranger to competitors, no matter how grand their planning of robotic spaces becomes. Already, there was Tesla’s announcement of its Optimus humanoid robot at last year’s Cybercab launch event. Nvidia is also among the big guns in silicon making, launching newfound AI technology at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), intended to power the robots of tomorrow.

For Meta to be relevant in this space, it would have to innovate above just being a tech giant. Yet, as much as that is, given its decades piled resources and unmatched AI know-how, Meta can even out its competition in the field of robotics pretty much as interest in AI-enabled devices skyrockets.

Meta’s Metaverse Dream: Still Awaiting Mass Adoption 

When it renamed itself from Facebook to Meta in 2021, the company made a bold move towards establishing what it calls the next phase of computing. The future, it envisions, will be a digital communal space in virtual reality (VR), where immersive experiences will be as common as the smartphone: the company’s bet. In his 2021 letter to the founding founder, CEO Mark Zuckerberg called this transition the “beginning of the next chapter for the internet.”

However, even after almost five years, the metaverse has stereotyped itself more or less as a niche concept. International Data Corporation’s projection estimates that 2025 will see mixed reality headsets shipped worldwide at a modest figure of 7.7 million against a huge estimate of 331.7 million smartphones just for the last quarter of 2024. Meta has approximately 71% share of the mixed reality headset markets, but that is hardly one to relate to in terms of being consumeristic, as the market stands.

Even though the metaverse isn’t growing as quickly as it should, Meta still believes in its vision, and it continues to take strides to redefine the digital realm. Meta is bringing all these technologies to bear on their mission for future digital development, whether it is virtual reality, robotics, or any emerging tech.

History of Meta Troubles with Consumer Hardware

Meta never had a pleasant ride outside of social media. Consider the Facebook smartphone, which the firm developed in conjunction with HTC in 2013. It was quickly disposed of; it was reduced down to £0.99. This is pretty clear evidence of poor sales. The public is quite telling about its preferences: not wanting too much integrated into their phones, besides just the app itself.

By the same token, there goes Meta’s attempt to penetrate the smart home market through Meta Portal, originally marketed as Facebook Portal in 2018, which also proved somewhat unfruitful. To facilitate video chats and connectivity, the device was eventually pulled.

However, it appears that the smart glasses project from Meta has much more promise. Among other things, Ray-Ban partnered with the IT giant in the creation of the Ray-Ban smart glasses, which sold over two million units in the first year after their launch in 2023. While this figure may sound small compared to already established products like smartphones or VR headsets, it gives hope that there is still a lot that can be harvested in the market for smart glasses, particularly as new players like Google and Samsung try to mimic the mobile industry’s success with their models of smart glasses and mixed-reality headsets.

Humanoid Robots: Meta’s Next Adventure

Robotics of Meta may be aped in some future version toward employment in their newest research and divisions, such as consumer-facing devices. They may be into conceptualising a Meta-branded home robot, but of more primary importance is building a robotics platform, the very heart of which will be defined, much like Android-based smartphones for the development of robotics technology.

Thus, going ahead, Meta wishes to change its identity from being simply a social media platform to being a centre for robotics, AI, and the digital space. Investing in artificial people-humanoid robotics and AI will pave the way into a future where devices are so connected that they’ll create entirely new experiences for the “living, working, and playing” of people who have integrated technology into their lives.

Is this the  New Era for Meta?

Meta just stepped into the field of humanoid robotics, so this is indeed an exciting chapter that the company is unfolding. The reigning king of social media is doing a flip back into robotics and AI to send a strong signal to a determined Meta that it’s going to remain firmly at the forefront of innovation in technology. Therein lies the crux of the matter: How capable is Meta of redefining the rules of the game in this next frontier as the company faces competition from well-defined competitors and the fast-revolving consumer hardware landscape?

The company normally seems to be just diversifying from the realm of social networking; however, its attempt into the field of humanoid robots stands to increase relevance with the tech-forward generation. With the company rope—a plethora of new robotics and AI platforms—potentially towards the next big breakout in the field. Only time will tell whether Meta will witness its grand vision becoming a working reality.