For once the competition is welcomed with open arms. According to rumors, Mark Zuckerberg is counting on Apple Vision Pro to “revitalize” the metaverse.
What if Apple’s future “space computer” gave Meta a good boost? A Wall Street Journal investigation reveals that the arrival of the Apple Vision Pro on the market is viewed very favorably by Mark Zuckerberg. Apple’s VR/AR headset would be seen in Menlo Park as a sign that the company’s investments in the metaverse are not fruitless.
The metaverse, an expensive fad for Mark Zuckerberg
Rather than fighting alone to impose its vision of the metaverse, the company hopes that Apple’s entry into the sector will allow it to become the equivalent of Android on the market. Understand, a more open, cheaper and more accessible alternative. From this point of view, the figures tend to prove Facebook’s parent company right since even the very expensive Meta Quest Pro ($1,499) is still $2,000 cheaper than the Apple Vision Pro.
But beyond hardware, Meta also hopes that Apple’s entry into this segment will “to validate» the company’s tactics in the eyes of the markets and “encourage more users” to take an interest in the metaverse and, why not, buy a headset bearing the company’s seal rather than an Apple Vision Pro.
It must be said that Meta has bet big on the advent of the virtual world. In 2022 alone, the company had invested $12 billion in this technology. And the results were not really up to par since the branch dedicated to the metaverse suffered losses of 3.7 billion dollars the same year, which earned it a major layoff plan at the end of 2023. Many rumors, denied by Mark Zuckerberg, even said that the company was ready to abandon the metaverse to concentrate on the development of general artificial intelligence.
Hopes to temper
The Apple Vision Pro could therefore be, according to Meta, the savior of a virtual world that has fallen into disrepair. But the company’s hopes still need to be tempered. Apple is banking more on augmented reality than on virtual reality with its Vision Pro and the headset is presented more as a “spatial computer” than as a means of immersing yourself in a life-size social network.
It is even rumored that Apple’s vision is already influencing the Meta teams who are also preparing a headset focused on augmented reality more than virtual reality. Not sure that the future of the metaverse will be particularly advantageous.
Source : Wall Street Journal
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