Having just announced that it is not interested in Facebook’s virtual universe, Apple is now opening its own metaverse, causing the stock price to skyrocket.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has just made ‘hidden’ statements about building his own metaverse, in the context of Apple’s plans to further expand the number of applications that support actual devices. virtual/augmented virtual reality (VR/AR).

With a total of 14,000 AR applications currently available on the App Store, this number will increase significantly in the near future when more investment is made, as revealed by the Apple CEO.

“We see a lot of potential in this area and are investing accordingly,” CEO Tim Cook replied when asked about plans for the metaverse – the term used to refer to a virtual world where users can accessible via the Internet.

The head of Apple also affirmed that all of Apple’s research and development efforts are focused on the “intersection point” of hardware, software and services.

“That’s where the magic really happens,” Cook said. “There are quite a few investments in things that aren’t available in the market at the moment.”

Some experts say that Apple’s introduction of AR devices or development of the metaverse could open up many opportunities for Apple to increase the number of registered users to use the service.

Counterpoint Research analyst Neil Shah said that Metaverse-related services, such as AR apps, could change Apple’s revenue structure. “There’s a significant upside to Apple’s services business, which is likely to overtake the iPhone (in terms of revenue) in the next five years,” said Shah. According to Reuters, CEO Tim Cook’s comments on the metaverse and reports of profits and record sales helped Apple shares rise nearly 5%.

Previously, information revealed by “co-man” Ming-Chi Kuo and Bloomberg site showed that Apple is planning to introduce AR-enabled devices this year or next. However, Apple has yet to publicly acknowledge these plans. Also according to information posted by Bloomberg, Apple is said to have no interest in Facebook’s metaverse virtual universe.

Accordingly, Apple wants to develop an AR headset, so that users can play games, communicate and absorb information in the real world, not long virtual reality excursions, like what Meta is intending to do. Not excluding the possibility, Apple will develop its own metaverse, and compete directly with the metaverse of Facebook or other technology giants like Microsoft.

As for Apple, Apple’s services revenue rose 24% to $19.5 billion in the last quarter, beating analysts’ estimates of $18.6 billion. As of now, Apple has 785 million registered users for paid services such as streaming music and games, up from 620 million subscribers a year ago, and 745 million subscribers in the third quarter. .