Quick take:
- Zuckerberg Says Meta explored all tech and use cases in Apple’s Vision Pro.
- The Meta Platforms co-founder and CEO emphasised that his company is after something different.
- However, he acknowledges that what Apple demonstrated with its AR/VR headset could be well the future of computing.
Mark Zuckerberg has given his take on Apple’s Vision Pro. The Meta Platforms Inc, (NASDAQ: META) co-founder and CEO was speaking during his company’s first employee meeting since 2020.
According to Zuckerberg, Apple’s AR/VR device introduces nothing new that his company had not explored. The Metaverse dream-chaser also downplayed the company’s WWDC demo for the keynote.
“I think that their announcement really showcases the difference in the values and the vision that our companies bring to this in a way that I think is really important,” Zuckerberg told employees at Menlo Park, California, adding that the Meta Quest headset is about “people interacting in new ways and feeling closer” while also remaining active and doing things.
Zuckerberg feels that Apple’s approach to virtual reality is different from what his company wants. “Every demo that they showed was a person sitting on a couch by themself,” he said, adding that while that could be the vision of the future of computing, “it’s not the one that I want.”
The Vision Pro showcases multiple use cases but primarily concentrated on individual use cases, including emailing, browsing the web, watching film and TV shows and interacting with family videos and photos.
There was just one instance where the Vision Pro was used to demonstrate communication between people, during FaceTime.
Apple’s announcement came just days after Meta unveiled its own AR/VR headset Quest 3, which Zuckerberg also says will be easier to ship to the masses because of the pricing.
Apple’s Vision Pro is expected to ship in the US in early 2024 with prices starting at $3,499, while Meta Quest 3, which ships this fall is priced at $499.
Zuckerberg wants Quest 3 to play a crucial role in realising his metaverse dream, which is why Meta’s VR/AR headset focuses more on interactions.
On the other hand, Tim Cook described the Vision Pro as the device that will introduce the era of “spatial computing”, following in the success stories of its predecessor products Mac, which ushered in desktop computing and the iPhone which revolutionised mobile computing.
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