The announcement of the Apple Vision Pro, the giant’s first mixed reality headset, may sound like a threat to the future of Meta, which has bet its future on this area. Mark Zuckerberg reacted to the announcement and is not tender.
Mark Zuckerberg’s avatar with legs
When Apple unveils its Apple Vision Pro headphones, the brand follows in the footsteps of Google, Microsoft and Meta before it. Mark Zuckerberg’s company has in particular bet its future on the mixed reality and Metaverse market by changing its name from Facebook to Meta.
Sensing the threat pointing before WWDC, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the Meta Quest 3, the firm’s next consumer helmet. Now that the announcement is there, the billionaire reacted to the presentation of Apple.
No major innovation
The least we can say is that Mark Zuckerberg does not mince his words. According to the entrepreneur, Apple presented “no technological breakthrough” that Meta had not “already explored”.
From what I saw initially, I’d say the good news is that they don’t have magic solutions to the constraints of the laws of physics that our teams haven’t already explored and haven’t not thought.
In this comment published on The Verge, we can also read bad faith on the part of Mark Zuckerberg. In particular, he points out the need to use a battery with a wire to use the Vision Pro helmet. Wire can certainly be an inconvenient design choice, but Meta Quest headsets also need a battery to operate, like any self-contained electronic device.
Still, for Mark Zuckerberg, the sinews of war is in the accessibility and democratization of the product. The businessman repeatedly points to the exorbitant price of Apple’s headphones, seven times higher than the Meta Quest 3.
But I think their announcement really highlights the difference in values and vision that our companies bring to this space, in a way that I think is very important. We innovate to make our products as accessible and affordable as possible for everyone, and it’s a core part of our business. And we’ve sold tens of millions of Quests.
Betting on the social aspect of the metaverse
It then alternates with another sequence of bad faith since it indicates that most Apple demos would not take into account the social question, showing a user alone on his couch. There are certainly demos that fit this description, but Apple also presented the integration of FaceTime or EyeSight, for maintaining a social connection during the use of the device. To the point where the demonstrations could puzzle, when a virtual look is displayed on the helmet, or when a person films a precious memory with the helmet aimed at his head.
More importantly, our view of metaverse and presence is fundamentally social. It’s about allowing people to interact in a new way and feel closer in a new way. Our device also makes it possible to be active and to do things. In comparison, all the demonstrations presented show a person sitting alone on a sofa. I mean this could be the vision for the future of computing, but it’s not the one I want.
However, we can recognize that Meta has focused most of its presentations on issues of social interaction in the virtual world, with its history with Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram. Simply, we cannot say that Apple has forgotten these uses for its future headphones.
Mark Zuckerberg knows that his reaction is expected at the turn. The billionaire also knows the history of the industry and must remember the reactions of Nokia or Microsoft to the launch of the first iPhone. Be careful not to feel too confident when a strong competitor arrives.
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