https://youtu.be/4GMqylzhCTY?si=amw0G2KaO7YQ0AX0
On Monday, June 5, Tim Cook dropped the infamous One More Thing.
This time, he unveiled Apple’s AR headset: the Apple Vision Pro.
When we think of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, there’s one company that comes to mind.
In 2014, Meta - or Facebook at the time, bought the VR headset maker Oculus for 2 billion dollars. Then in 2021, they literally rebranded the entire company to Meta -signaling their focus on the metaverse.
They were supposed to be the flag bearers of VR and AR.
How then is it that Apple could come out with this headset almost a decade after Meta bought Oculus, charge 3x the price of the Meta Quest Pro, and somehow still generate so much positive press?
What’s interesting about Apple’s announcement is that they didn't use the word MetaVerse even once.
Instead, Tim Cook talked about spatial computing; a fancy word for augmented reality.
Essentially, Apple’s headset isn’t designed to disconnect you from your surroundings altogether. Instead, it’s similar to looking through the Ironman suit where you can see little holograms projected onto the actual space you’re looking at.
This is different from Meta’s messaging which takes you out of reality into the virtual world.
Take a look at the Meta Quest Pro home screen.
And now compare it with Apple Vision Pro home screen.
That’s the difference between the MetaVerse, and spatial computing.
Apple actually doesn’t believe that customers want full virtual reality yet. The Apple Vision Pro even has a dial to change how immersed you are in the virtual world.