Qualcomm president and CEO Cristiano Amon (pictured) cited the automotive industry, live sports events and video conferencing as sectors with the most to gain from so-called metaverses, as he explained the potential of the virtualisation movement during the vendor’s Snapdragon Tech Summit 2021.

metaverseAlong with detailing how various industries might use the approach, Amon put his money where his mouth is by conducting a virtual call with Meta Platforms CTO and head of reality labs Andrew Bosworth (pictured, right).

“I get a lot of questions about…how we see the metaverse developing”, Amon told the audience. “The connection of physical and digital spaces is real…digital twins are happening across many industries”.

The executive expects metaverses to “be as big as phones”, envisaging a “situation where the developer ecosystem becomes mature and we have companion glasses to our phones, and eventually it just becomes the glasses”.

Amon described how mechanics could employ AR wearables while inspecting vehicles to view a digital twin of the actual engine.

At sports events, fans could employ VR to watch from different angles, with the potential to use digital twins in video conferences to replicate real rooms.

Bosworth described the metaverse as “a vision that we’ve held somewhat in secret”, adding the concept is generating enthusiasm with a wider audience now it has been discussed and demonstrated publicly.

“If people have spent a little time in VR they get it”, Bosworth asserted. “It takes five minutes in a headset…and without Qualcomm it wouldn’t be possible”.

The executive explained Meta Platforms relies on Qualcomm’s “ability to be efficient with power and thermal space in these tiny form factors, because we are going to put it on someone’s head”.