Part 10/12:
But history offers a cautionary tale. Facebook’s attempt at creating its own hardware—the Facebook phone—failed spectacularly, despite its efforts to own distribution and user habits. Today, Meta still struggles with the same challenge: how to control the environment where users spend their time, whether through Quest VR headsets or Metaverse ambitions. Hardware is inherently difficult—building products that become default experiences takes years and immense resources.
For now, ChatGPT’s success isn’t just about superior AI or clever features. It’s about a complex interplay of economics, psychology, and distribution control. They stumbled into a viral product by accident, but long-term victory demands shifting from an opportunist model to one where they own distribution channels outright.