This week Apple hit a $3trn dollar market capitalization.

That means that Apple is now worth more than Walmart, Disney, Netflix, Nike, Exxonmobil, Coca-cola, McDonald’s, AT&T, Goldman Sachs, Boeing, IBM, and Ford put together.

It’s a monster. And at the heart of its success lies the true metaverse. We could call it the Appleverse.

A metaverse, you will recall, is a series of Internet services connected by one operating system that does not recognize geographic boundaries.

Every metaverse needs a way in, a portal. For Apple, it is the App Store, which has been described as one of the most accretive business models in history. Another portal into the Appleverse is AirPods. Apple’s AirPods business alone generates around $12billion a year. That is more than Shopify, Snap, and Twitter combined.

Apple’s rival in the Metaverse is Facebook. Sorry, Meta. One reason Facebook has made a play for the Metaverse is that, unlike Apple, Meta has no hardware they control. They rely on other firms – including Apple – to carry their social media sites Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. This puts them in a weaker position.

Zuckerberg hopes that his Occulus headset can be the portal into the one true Metaverse, his metaverse. Setting aside the deeply troubling notion of spending time in any environment controlled by Zuckerberg, there are other reasons to be doubtful Zuck’s Metaverse will be a success.

His Oculus headset is selling somewhere between three and 5 million units. As one pundit has pointed out, that sounds like a lot until you realize crocs – a rubber slipper with holes in – shifts 60 million units a year. Last year, there were 130 million air pods sold. I am not sure AirPods look cool, but they look a lot better than wearing anyone wearing the Occulus headset.

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About the author

My name is Andy Pemberton. I am an expert in data visualization. I guide global clients such as Lombard Odier, the European Commission and Cisco on the best way to use data visualization and then produce it for them: reports, infographics and motion graphics. If you need your data visualized contact me at andy@furthr.co.uk or call 07963 020 103

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