Meta's March to Make the iPhone 'The Thing That Gets Us to the Thing'

"Computers aren't the thing. They're the thing that gets us to the thing." This quote by Joe MacMillan in the pilot episode of Halt & Catch Fire often pops into my head. And it did again while reading recent reports about the next generation computing hardware that Big Tech is currently working on.

Specifically, Meta seems to be singularly focused on creating the next computing paradigm. They keep putting more irons in the fire. No abbreviation will be left untapped: VR. AI. AR. XR. And now they're seemingly searching tangential to those markets to find something, anything that can bring about the next thing. Smart sunglasses for sports. Smart watches. Even smart headphones. Everything is now on the table.

Why? Because, to channel MacMillan again, Meta needs to believe that: "Smartphones aren't the thing. They're the thing that gets us to the thing."