According to Forbes magazine, a fierce battle between Apple and Meta (Facebook) will take place in the next century and the goal is virtual reality (VR) glasses that can see the movements of the user’s face.
Since a year ago, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has considered the virtual universe as the next step in technology with a multitude of possibilities, from work to entertainment on this new platform. But if we look closely at the technology industry’s perspective as well as Meta’s recent advances, we can clearly see a great war is approaching.
During the recent launch of the Quest Pro virtual reality headset, founder Mark Zuckerberg said a lot of things that elevate the product. However, few people noticed that during the 82-minute speech, the leader of this Meta repeatedly “attacked” Apple even though he did not mention the name of the apple house.
At various points during the launch, CEO Mark Zuckerberg criticized Apple’s business model to profit mainly from hardware rather than from advertising, although the founder did not name it. The director of this Meta also mocked Apple’s closed ecosystem when developing from hardware to software, creating its own playground with standards that are more suitable for the company’s interests than the community.
Even Mark Zuckerberg said that it was Apple’s “standards” that created companies like Uber or Tiktok, which were questioned about the security and safety of personal information.
“In the history of technology, we have open and closed ecosystems” said founder Mark Zuckerberg, clearly alluding to the contrast between Apple’s regular PCs and Macs, or operating systems Google’s Android with Apple’s iOS.
According to Mark, it is the closure of the Apple ecosystem that makes this company profitable and the virtual universe segment should not follow this closure.
Shared vision
According to Cnet, both Meta and Apple see virtual reality technology as the future of the technology industry. Virtual reality glasses will create a new wave of technological developments like smartphones did.
Today, the tech industry is selling hundreds of millions of PCs and more than 1.5 million smartphones a year. With the development of the virtual universe and the feature gradually replacing computers and phones, virtual reality glasses are expected to inherit sales from the above products.
Apple CEO Tim Cook once said he believes virtual reality technology will change the world the way the Internet did a few decades ago.
“I think VR technology will affect every aspect of our lives… There will come a time when we will look back and wonder why in the past people were able to live without virtual reality glasses”, Tim Cook gave an interview to the Dutch newspaper Bright in September 2022.
Popularity of virtual reality (VR) headsets in the US by age group, gender and income
In 2017, shortly after Apple launched the AR Kit software, CEO Tim Cook gave an interview to Forbes magazine and said virtual reality technology could be one of the biggest contributions of the Apple company for the world in the future.
Similarly, Mark Zuckerberg has a similar vision of the virtual universe.
“We believe in this vision so much that we renamed the parent company after the virtual universe” emphasized CEO mark during the Quest Pro promotion.
Open war
Understanding that they shared the same vision, Meta opened fire before launching a virtual universe equipment set, including virtual reality glasses and a controller.
On the Apple side, the company does not reveal much about its virtual universe project, but has also quietly added a lot of relevant features on iPhone and iPad. In 2017, the company launched the AR Kit to help app developers interact with the real world. The most famous application using this software is the game Pokemon Go where players go to catch animals by searching for them through the camera and screen.
Then the Ikea Place application, where users can measure the area of the home space as well as what the context will be when home appliances are installed.
Consistent with a style that is not necessarily the first but certainly the best, Apple is in no hurry to announce its products nor reveal information about them. Apple is not the first in the MP3 player market but is still famous for the iPod, nor is it the first to release the first smartphone but is known for its iPhone.
Now when many people are waiting for when Apple will officially join the virtual reality headset segment as it did with the iPod and iPhone before, some have begun to talk about this new product name because Meta used the word “vulture” virtual pillar” and CEO Tim Cook certainly does not want to use it again.
How will Apple launch its virtual reality headset?
“I’m also not sure ordinary people can understand what the concept of a virtual universe is” emphasized CEO Tim Cook.
According to Cnet, the main reason why Apple considers Facebook as a major competitor in the industry is that Meta has been one step ahead with its Quest 2 line of virtual reality headsets. This product is said to be one of the best-selling VR headsets to date current time.
Anshel Sag of Moor Insights & Strategy warned that in addition to virtual reality glasses, Meta also has ambitions to develop applications as well as e-commerce businesses in the virtual universe. This is an ecosystem similar to what Apple used to do with the iPhone.
“This will certainly be another battle between technology platforms…Meta understands very well that they need a head start to benefit in this race” expert Sag said.
Eight years ago, Mark Zuckerberg started the race with the acquisition of startup Oculus VRR for more than $ 2 billion. It is this advantage that has made Meta’s virtual reality headset sales reach $1.5 billion, leading the industry.
Now, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not only building his own virtual universe dream, but also preparing for an inevitable battle with rival Apple.
Source: Forbes, CNET
Source: Vietnam Insider