Alex McCurthy
In a recent meeting with Meta employees, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook), expressed his perspective on Apple’s Vision Pro headset unveiling. Despite Apple’s introduction of the Vision Pro, Zuckerberg seemed unfazed and discussed his thoughts with Meta’s employees.
During the companywide meeting, Zuckerberg stated that Apple’s device did not present any significant technological breakthroughs that Meta hadn’t already explored. He also expressed that the vision Apple has for how people will use the device is not aligned with his own. Additionally, Zuckerberg highlighted the affordability factor, pointing out that Meta’s upcoming Quest 3 headset, priced at $499, will be considerably cheaper compared to the Vision Pro’s $3,499 price tag. This affordability could enable Meta to reach a wider user base.
Zuckerberg emphasized the differences in values and vision between Meta and Apple, stating, “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.” He further explained that Meta’s Quest is focused on people interacting in new ways, fostering closeness and promoting active engagement.
Zuckerberg’s confidence in Meta’s position is evident, despite the competitive threat posed by Apple’s headset. Meta has been striving to establish itself as a leader in the virtual and augmented reality space, although its previous Quest Pro release was perceived by some as a disappointment.
Apple’s Vision Pro marks a significant development in the VR market, challenging Meta’s endeavors. Nevertheless, Meta remains committed to accessibility and affordability, while emphasizing the social aspects of the metaverse experience.
Zuckerberg’s full remarks about Apple’s headset can be found below:
“Apple finally announced their headset, so I want to talk about that for a second. I was really curious to see what they were gonna ship. And obviously I haven’t seen it yet, so I’ll learn more as we get to play with it and see what happens and how people use it.
From what I’ve seen initially, I’d say the good news is that there’s no kind of magical solutions that they have to any of the constraints on laws of physics that our teams haven’t already explored and thought of. They went with a higher resolution display, and between that and all the technology they put in there to power it, it costs seven times more and now requires so much energy that now you need a battery and a wire attached to it to use it. They made that design trade-off and it might make sense for the cases that they’re going for.
But look, 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. We innovate to make sure that our products are as accessible and affordable to everyone as possible, and that is a core part of what we do. And we have sold tens of millions of Quests.
More importantly, our vision for the metaverse and presence is fundamentally social. It’s about people interacting in new ways and feeling closer in new ways. Our device is also about being active and doing things. By contrast, every demo that they showed was a person sitting on a couch by themselves. I mean, that could be the vision of the future of computing, but like, it’s not the one that I want. There’s a real philosophical difference in terms of how we’re approaching this. And seeing what they put out there and how they’re going to compete just made me even more excited and in a lot of ways optimistic that what we’re doing matters and is going to succeed. But it’s going to be a fun journey.”
