FACEBOOK BUYS AN APPLICATION....

Facebook Buys Oculus VR: What's Next?
Virtual friends socializing in virtual reality?
There's a headset for that.
Not to
be left
out of
the
wearable computing market, Facebook on
Tuesday said it has agreed to acquire Oculus
VR , maker of the Oculus Rift virtual reality
headset, for $2 billion -- $400 million in
cash and $1.6 billion in Facebook stock.
That's far less than the $19 billion Facebook
spent to acquire WhatsApp last month, but
it's nonetheless the second-largest acquisition
the company has made to date. Oculus VR
began as a Kickstarter campaign that sought
$250,000 and collected almost 10 times that
amount by the time the campaign concluded
in October 2012.
In a public post, Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg described the deal as a way for
Facebook to begin focusing on the platforms
that will come after mobile. Oculus's
technology, he said, "opens up the possibility
of completely new kinds of experiences."
Zuckerberg said Oculus, with Facebook's help,
will continue to focus on its Rift headset for
immersive gaming. "But this is just the
start," he said. "After games, we're going to
make Oculus a platform for many other
experiences. Imagine enjoying a courtside
seat at a game, studying in a classroom of
students and teachers all over the world, or
consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by
putting on goggles in your home."
Google is imagining just that, but with Glass
rather than goggles. And so too are others:
Augmedix recently raised $3.2 million to
make Glass more suitable for doctors. The
tech sector is hoping that the wearable
computing market will take off in the same
way as the mobile device market.
[Is Google honest about what Glass does
and doesn't do? See 10 Google Glass
Myths, Translated .]
Despite the fact that Facebook's obsession
with social interaction and sharing seems to
fit poorly with a device designed to isolate
the wearer from the real world, Zuckerberg
nonetheless extols Oculus's headset as a new
communication platform.
Brendan Iribe, co-founder and CEO of Oculus
VR, characterized his company's technology in
a similar manner: "We believe virtual reality
will be heavily defined by social experiences
that connect people in magical, new ways."
Virtual friends and virtual reality: It's a match
made in heaven, if you're a marketer. But
not necessarily if you're a developer.
Minecraft creator Markus Persson, better
known as Notch, slammed the deal in a
Twitter post.

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