Apple released the Vision Pro virtual reality headset in June this year, announcing its entry into the field of virtual reality. This also adds a lot to Meta’s virtual reality-themed Meta Connect 2023 Conference
According to CNBC, one word was on everyone’s lips at Meta’s annual Connect conference this week: Apple.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg enthusiastically introduced the company’s latest virtual reality headset, the Quest 3, which starts at $499 and will start shipping in October. At the meeting, Meta also introduced the growth of the virtual reality app store Quest Store, emphasizing that the app store has generated $2 billion in revenue since its launch in 2019, higher than the $1.5 billion the company announced at the meeting last year.
The biggest difference between this year’s Connect conference and last year’s is that Apple is about to enter the virtual reality market, giving attendees a clearer understanding of the future development of this industry.
In June this year, Apple announced that the Vision Pro mixed reality headset will be available next year, priced at an eye-popping $3,499. While this is Apple’s first foray into virtual reality, the company’s long-standing dominance of high-end consumer devices and strong reputation in hardware gave Meta’s industry event unprecedented buzz.
The industry predicts that virtual reality and mixed reality will remain niche markets in the next few years. But more than a dozen attendees this week agreed that the tone is changing among developers and virtual reality companies alike regarding the potential of the expanding industry.
Tom Symonds, CEO of British virtual reality company Immersion, said: “Apple’s entry into this market will definitely arouse people’s curiosity.” “Apple has always been able to seamlessly combine hardware and software.”
Before Apple released the Vision Pro, the entire virtual reality industry was going through an identity crisis, with venture capitalists withdrawing investment and the popularity of the Metaverse and related cryptocurrency projects declining. At the same time, Meta is losing billions of dollars every quarter as it builds its virtual world and vision of the metaverse, but Zuckerberg shows no signs of slowing down, leaving many who only see costs Rising investors frustrated.
Even though Apple’s headset won’t go on sale for several months, and it’s unclear how many people will want to buy one or can afford it, Apple’s addition gives Meta’s efforts in the virtual reality industry more legitimacy.
At this week’s Connect conference, in addition to showing off its latest headset, Meta also unveiled its latest Ray-Ban smart glasses, developed in partnership with EssilorLuxottica. The new glasses will go on sale October 17, starting at $299. It connects to a smartphone and uses Meta’s artificial intelligence software to allow users to identify landmarks or translate signs when looking at various objects.
Promoting effect
Aneesh Kulkarni, chief technology officer of virtual reality training company Strivr, said it would be a “huge loss of confidence” if Meta stopped investing heavily in pushing the virtual reality market forward.
Kulkarni said, “Meta is pushing, who has the money to push?”
He added that while $2 billion in App Store revenue “may not sound like a lot compared to the Apple Store,” it’s still a huge and important number. Thanks to the popularity of iPhone and iPad apps, Apple has a huge market, with Apple App Store revenue reaching $1.1 trillion in 2022.
Josette Seitz, a mixed reality developer at social influence company Baltu Technologies, said Apple may have an advantage in attracting businesses that already operate on Apple devices like iPads. She said it’s conceivable that for a company whose field workers currently use iPads for inspections or other tasks, it would be easier to transition to the more immersive Vision Pro because of the devices’ greater interoperability.
Seitz said the Vision Pro may be more of an enterprise-focused product, given its high price tag. In any case, it is important for more companies to enter this market.
“There shouldn’t be just one company,” Seitz said. “We can’t let this market be cornered.”
Gaspar Ferreiro, a developer at virtual reality company Coal Car Studios, called the Vision Pro’s price “crazy” and said Apple was taking a “big gamble.”
“Businesses will absolutely take the risk,” Ferrero said. He believes that because of Apple’s past reputation, some companies will invest heavily in Apple devices.
Meta faces challenges of its own. Despite being in the game a few years before Apple, Meta has been working hard to bring virtual reality into the mainstream market, and compared with the lower starting price of the Quest 2, Ferrero is not sure whether the Quest 3 will be enough to win over those who are not in the industry or New customers for developers.
“The average consumer may be faced with a dilemma, do I want to spend an extra $200 on a new device?” Ferrero said.
Compared with the old Quest 2, one of the biggest improvements of the Quest 3 is the so-called “transmission” function, which can convert the user’s immediate field of view into a colorful digital format, allowing computer vision technology to cover the entire real world. It turns out that when using Quest 2 to observe the real environment around you, it is very blurry and colorless, but using Quest 3 to see it is much clearer and the experience should be better.
For developers, Ferrero said, this means they have the ability to develop more engaging content and visual experiences that blend the real and digital worlds.
Jeffrey Morin, CEO of Litesport, a fitness services company, said the price of the Quest 3 was “out of my comfort zone of buying Christmas gifts for my kids.”
But he also believes that improved transmission capabilities are valuable and critical for his upcoming mixed reality app, Xponential Fitness, which allows users to exercise with a digital avatar of a personal trainer in their living room.
When talking about cooperation with Apple, Morin said that with the development of the product, the price of Vision Pro may drop to between US$1,000 and US$1,500 in the future, and Litesport VR will also look for ways to develop related applications. The original Vision Pro was too expensive and required users to carry around a battery pack, which created additional hassles when exercising.
Morin said Apple’s advantage is that it has a large customer base that is “more likely to pay for subscription services,” which is a recurring revenue stream. In Morin’s experience, most Quest users are gamers more accustomed to one-time app purchases.
Morin said that even though Apple’s headsets aren’t available yet, he’s noticed an increase in users of Litesports’ VR fitness app since its release, underscoring how excited the entire VR community is.
“They turned on the headset and said, let me see what’s out there again,” Morin said.
Ultimately, Apple’s move into virtual reality proves that the technology is more than just a Facebook side project.
“It doesn’t feel like Mark’s little toy anymore,” Maureen said. “It’s everyone’s now.”
