The Apple Vision Pro headset is almost here, and despite it being popular enough for orders to be delayed, its biggest competitor doesn’t seem to mind the competition.
In a report by The Wall Street Journal, it was revealed that Meta executives are “optimistic, believing the iPhone Maker’s entry into the market will validate Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s gamble.” The recently launched Meta Quest 3 upped its mixed reality capabilities, making it the headset that is most similar to Apple’s headset out there. People familiar with the internal workings of Meta claim that the Quest line of headsets could play a similar role to that of Android against the iPhone.
WSJ spoke to Cathy Craig, a VR developer, who told the outlet, “What Meta thinks is people will buy their headset because it’s cheaper.” Given the huge $3,499 price point of the Apple Vision Pro and the relatively smaller price tag of $499 for a Meta Quest 3, some consumers could opt for Meta’s own headset, especially when you consider that spatial video appears to be coming to the platform.
A big gamble
The metaverse has been estimated to have cost Meta over $36 billion since 2019, and Apple’s adoption of mixed reality apps and spaces could entice users into trying out a similar concept
In that same WSJ piece, a chief investment officer said, “This could be the Apple Newton—if you remember that, that was a real flop—or it could be the next iPhone.” If the Apple Vision Pro fails, it could make other mixed reality headsets look bad by association, so Meta execs seem to want Apple to succeed, for the profits of both brands.
