In the next months, we're likely to see Meta's Quest 3 and 2 sales going up. And that's due to the release of Apple Vision Pro.
My summary of this week's feeds (YouTube, News, Social) is that "with Quest 3 you get 80% of what Apple Vision Pro offers at 15% of the price".
I have watched and read quite a few reviews and there's a lot of emotion. Mostly positive, people are surprised by the level of execution and praise the unprecedented capabilities. Yet when it comes to comparisons the reviewers don't have many options to mention - in most cases, it's Quest 3. Just like Apple's headset it is
- a standalone device that works without a computer (other headsets come from the VR gaming world),
- has best-in-class image sharpness/quality (had until recently),
- has avatars of the user,
- supports gesture controls,
- supports virtual desktops (with Meta's app and several 3rd parties)
- has decent passthrough as default mode (making it a true MR).
Quest 3 (and even older 2) seems to have all the features of Vision Pro, and even more (such as supporting more platforms, many apps, and content). It's just the hardware is inferior, and the interoperability with Android/Windows comes with more friction and less out-of-the-box experience (the "Apple Magic"). Upon contemplating the subject of autonomous versatile MR headsets with rich ecosystems - until recently there were only Meta devices. And now there's a 2nd entrant to the market.
What Apple just did was a huge advertising campaign for VR/MR. And it went viral. Most people will look at those Apple Vision Pro reviews and opinions (which are hard not to come by) and think "Well, that's interesting". The next step would be researching the options and making the comparisons. And many will think "OK, Quest 3 gives all the same features. Apparently they are not as premium/good, but with $500 vs $3500 I can give a try of Meta's headset".
The MR/VR idea has recently been put in the heads of many people, and some of those will (re)considering joining the trend. And some might choose to accept (and buy Quest 3 as I just did).
Top comments (4)
I get what you're saying and you're probably right, it will help meta sales much like the iPhone helped Android sales. But that 20% is very important when it comes to VR and serious reviewers like James Cameron who have a lot of VR experience talk about it. Apple was able to cross that uncanny valley in VR/AR to a point where the experience is seamless enough.
Also the target markets couldn't be further apart. I think the metaverse is utter nonsense. I don't do gaming and 3d films aren't a big deal for me. The ability to work on the train like I do in the office and not have people peaking over my shoulder is a killer feature for me. Being on a conference call while doing the dishes and no one would know... Again, amazing. I would love for this to go forward like navigation apps that show me the way etc. It's a very different device for a very different ecosystem.
Haven't experienced the Vision Pro by myself, yet I am not sure that sharper displays and better cameras are that much of a leap comapred to Quest 3.. I think the very first reviews were a bit to generous and raised the bar a lot. Let's see how it goes) I have seen reviews of Quest 3 from few months ago stating that Quest 3 can be a productivity tool and give multiple high quality monitors. And it is not quite the case:) You can get large 720p or very large 1080p monitors covering walls which might be impressive, until you find that without 200% scaling and always spinning your head the texts get blurry. It is nowhere close to normal minitors. And now I see another bunch of reviewers promising the same - I would wait to test and decide this for myself:)
Btw, last time I checked, human eye's resolution is 500Mp, Vision Pro has ~12MP displays and Quest 3 ~4MP. Similar gaps are in the ISO and dynamic range if we speak of eyes vs cameras. There's huge difference between human sensory systems and what current electronics can do, none of the headsets is there yet..
It was just today I came across this video quoting WSJ article, that discusses what Meta's executives make out of Apple's headset. They are happy it can be a validation of MR and their product lines/ideas. And they are less into metaverses these days and look at more practical applications, hence their recent pivot into MR with Quest 3 (vs VR focused Quest 2). youtu.be/q7eJ15eVoJg?si=nqfDOCz-HM...
IMO, this might not be the iPhone moment for Apple. But let's see)
Haven't tried it either so I'm mostly relying on reviews from people who did. I think that for the case of gaming or movie watching the difference won't be big. But for the case of mixed reality this will probably be a game changer.
Yes, I agree it won't be an iPhone in the immediate future. I think it will be an Apple Watch. Something that has a small following and slowly gains features/traction without the same level of excitement, initially. Once the form factor will improve I think this can be a huge game changer. I think Apple understands the market and use cases better than the competition. Look at the iPhone, iPad, Air Pods and Apple Watch. They all entered a market where previous devices existed, in some cases with superior features. Yet, they dominated the markets and it's not just marketing/fanboyism. E.g. an iPad is just so much better than any other tablet I tried by a mile. Even now. I can't stand the appearance of the Apple Watch, but I can't argue with its success. I think this will be a similar situation.
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