Rather than leap headfirst into the metaverse, Adobe has a more practical recommendation for companies: First make sure you’ve made 3D digital images of all your products.
Why it matters: Adobe’s vision is less sexy than the one painted by Meta and others, but it is designed to allow investments to pay off long before the arrival of a fully 3D internet you can touch and feel.
In a keynote speech at today’s Adobe Summit, the company is announcing its vision for the metaverse, including steps that companies can take now.
- First, Adobe is focusing on the benefits companies can get now by having 3D digital assets. Doing so, for example, allows companies to do digital photo shoots, something that early adopters found paid off during the pandemic.
- The company is also announcing new or expanded partnerships with companies including Epic Games, Nvidia, NASCAR and Coca Cola.
- Also, Adobe is investing in both its own products as well as backing a pair of file formats (glTF and usdz) that it says can help make it easy to move 3D files from one platform to another. Common file types were key to the unified Internet, Adobe says, but are still lacking in the 3D world.
Between the lines: Such a strategy also allows companies to prepare without having to place bets on which companies or technologies will prevail.
- “Neither one of us knows where all this is going to end,” Adobe chief product officer Scott Belsky said in an interview. “We do know the future is going to be more immersive.”