Apple Vision Pro & Meta Quest 3
Wow, the last few days have been quite something. First, Meta - presumably in anticipation of Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) - unveiled their new Quest 3 headset last Thursday (June 1, 2023). And this Monday (June 5, 2023), Apple finally followed up. Since you've probably already read quite a bit about the Apple Vision Pro in the media, I won't list everything again in this article, but will comment on selected items.
Source Video: https://twitter.com/NathieVR/status/1664777368446160899?s=20
First of all, Apple has once again shown that they are the master of showcasing. What a performance by Tim Cook. The famous "One more thing..." at the end of the conference had it all. While Mark Zuckerberg and Meta tend to stumble from PR disaster to PR disaster, Apple made a precision landing at WWDC23. Reading the comments in the media and on social networks, I see a lot of enthusiasm for the Apple Vision Pro. Even Tim Cook seemed super excited during WWDC23. Clearly, the Apple Vision Pro was masterfully presented, Meta has a lot to learn.
Even though the Apple Vision Pro steals the show from the Meta Quest 3, the Meta Quest 3 is certainly the product that has the larger target audience. Apple's Vision Pro is clearly positioned at the premium end of the market with $3499, while the Meta Quest 3 aims for the mass market with $499. The Meta Quest 3 will be released this fall and, in my opinion, is the right product for those looking to purchase a headset to experiment with a bit.
Apple's premium price is quite steep for the consumer market. However, companies are possibly the target group for the market launch. Both Meta and Apple are also targeting the business market with their headsets ("An infinite canvas for apps at work"; also see my article on “How the Metaverse could change the way we work”). The headsets are supposed to make classic screens obsolete, maybe even laptops ("here are 200 million people who get new PCs every year, mostly for work. Our goal for the Quest Pro line over the next several years is to enable more and more of these people to get their work done in virtual and mixed reality, eventually even better than they could on PCs." - Marc Zuckerberg"). I already do quite some work in VR and can well imagine more work in XR settings in the future.
The wording that Apple uses is also interesting. For example, Apple does not talk about VR, AR, XR or the Metaverse, but about "spatial computing":
"Today marks the beginning of a new era for computing (...) just as the Mac introduced us to personal computing, and iPhone introduced us to mobile computing, Apple Vision Pro introduces us to spatial computing." - Tim Cook
Personally, I'm curious if Apple will really manage to deliver the display quality as announced. I often work with the Meta Quest Pro in VR settings, and the quality when reading text has improved significantly in recent months, but the Quest Pro does not (yet) deliver a "4K display with incredibly crisp text" as promised by Apple's Vision Pro. Large expandable screens also seem to be the biggest value proposition to end users, think home theater experience. I'm curious whether this is sufficient for the end customer market, because the area of use is limited to cinema evenings on your own... although at the moment I would like to have an Apple Vision Pro with me, I'm currently on a plane to Lisbon for a tech conference and would like to immerse myself virtually in another environment.
PS: I recently wrote an article about privacy in the Metaverse. Especially with tools that use eye tracking, this is certainly important. Apple has presented a solution here, where visited websites, apps and even not Apple get the eye tracking data.
PPS: The Apple Vision Pro reminded me a lot of the movie Ready Player One. If you don't know the movie, it is well worth watching.
If you want to learn more about the Apple Vision Pro, check out this video:
And here is the Meta Quest 3 commercial that Mark Zuckerberg posted last week.
Disclaimer: The thoughts published in this publication are my personal opinions and should not be viewed as investment advice. I am not a financial expert. My specialty is entrepreneurship, innovation & marketing. Readers should always do their own research. I own various cryptocurrencies and NFTs, however in many cases it is for the sake of researching the field and gaining a deeper understanding of Web3, NFTs and the Metaverse and not for investment purposes.
i got some super black mirror vibes from the apple video - record a moment with your kids to rewatch it later… maybe just experience it in the moment itself? 😅 also did you notice, everybody in the video is alone. the scene where the guy is watching pictures of his family seems that they died in a car crash… interesting times for the future if vr/ar! nice read, thank you!