During Apple’s recent WWDC, the company previewed Vision Pro, historic as it is since it is its very first wearable headset device. It offers a mixed reality experience with features such as 4K micro OLED displays with 23 million pixels combined, eye and gesture tracking for navigation and control, more than a dozen cameras, and more.
Apple Vision Pro is also winning the hearts of many people around. For instance, Matthew Panzarino from TechCrunch, an online newspaper that publishes content about tech, said the headset’s hardware is “very good.”
“The hardware is good — very good — with 24 million pixels across the two panels, orders of magnitude more than any headsets most consumers have come into contact with. The optics are better, the headband is comfortable and quickly adjustable and there is a top strap for weight relief,” Panzarino wrote.
Nilay Patel, the editor-in-chief of The Verge, a technology news website, also likes the headset. They said they wore the Apple Vision Pro, adding, “It’s the best headset demo ever.”
But apparently, Facebook’s founder and CEO of its parent company, Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, is not part of this group. He actually dissed the Apple Vision Pro.
‘No magical solutions’
In a company-wide meeting the Meta CEO held with its employees yesterday, he responded to Apple’s announcement of Vision Pro, saying that the device has “no magical solutions” and “costs seven times more” than the headset that Meta also recently unveiled.
Zuckerberg said those statements in front of Meta’s employees at the company’s Menlo Park, California headquarters. The meeting was also the company’s first all-hands meeting since 2020.
Notably, the Meta CEO said Apple Vision Pro failed to present any significant technological breakthroughs that his company hadn’t thought of, adding Apple’s vision for how people intend to use the device is “not the one” he wants.
Zuckerberg also championed his company’s version, the Meta Quest 3, with his employees. He said, “I think that their (Apple’s) 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 added that Meta Quest 3 is about “people interacting in new ways and feeling closer” while “about being active and doing things” at the same time.
Apple Vision Pro is expensive, Zuckerberg says
A few days before Apple unveiled its Vision Pro, Meta announced Quest 3, a VR headset with a higher resolution, stronger performance, slimmer and more comfortable design, and breakthrough Meta Reality technology, among others.
It also costs only $499, compared to Vision Pro, that costs a whopping $3,499, which Zuckerberg said “costs seven times more” than its Quest 3.
Despite the positive feedback to Vision Pro, others agree with what the Meta CEO says.
The Conversation, a network of not-for-profit media outlets that publish news and research reports online, said in one of its articles, “The Apple Vision Pro hasn’t really impressed consumers… Others can’t help but point out the hefty price tag of US$3,500 – and the fact that the general public has simply not embraced mixed reality headsets.”
How about you? What’s your verdict so far?
