Apple officially declares war on Meta

Apple officially introduced the Vision Pro mixed reality headset at WWDC 2023, which is also when the iPhone maker and parent company Facebook entered the arena. Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg both believe that in the new era of personal computing, people will wear headsets to enter virtual worlds and interact with 3D objects. Cook calls this “spatial computing”, while Zuckerberg uses the term “metaverse”. Related technologies are virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality.

Facebook jumped into the market nine years ago when it acquired startup Oculus for $2 billion. At the end of 2021, the company changed its name to Meta, and Zuckerberg pledged to spend billions of dollars each quarter to develop VR and AR technology for the metaverse.

Meta now has a large market share in the nascent market, beating rivals like Sony, HTC, and Magic Leap in headset sales. Research firm CCS Insight said that VR and AR headset shipments in 2022 will fall 12% to 9.6 million units compared to 2021.

Some analysts say Apple’s entry into the market could provide a much-needed boost to consumer interest in the technology. If any company has the potential to transform the VR market overnight, it’s Apple, according to CCS Insight analyst Leo Gebbie.

However, Apple hasn't specified exactly when the Vision Pro will be available, other than early next year. More importantly, it's not for the masses, at least initially, due to its price tag of $3,499 (over 80 million VND). This gives Zuckerberg some breathing room, as Meta's VR devices are significantly cheaper. This fall, the $300 Quest 2 and $500 Quest 3 will be available. Meta's Reality Labs division, which develops the hardware and software for the metaverse, lost $13.72 billion last year and $3.99 billion in the first quarter of this year.

For Zuckerberg, the key now is to turn the mixed reality into a business opportunity. Unlike Google or Apple, Meta doesn't own an operating system. Android and iOS generate billions of dollars in revenue, allowing them to dominate the smartphone market and set the rules of the game that third-party developers like Facebook must follow.

Apple's changes to iOS privacy settings in 2021 caused significant damage, estimated at billions of dollars for Facebook the following year. It limited Facebook and other social media platforms' ability to track users on the web and deliver targeted advertising. As a result, the online advertising market was severely impacted.

Zuckerberg has repeatedly spoken out about the unfairness of iOS and the App Store policies. Meta asserts that by eliminating targeted advertising, Apple is harming many small businesses that are using Facebook's advertising model to effectively reach new customers.

In November 2022, at a conference, Zuckerberg declared that Apple considered itself the only company seeking to unilaterally control applications on its devices.

For his part, Cook criticized Facebook for making money from users' personal information rather than selling products that people want to buy. In 2021, he linked Facebook's model to real-world consequences such as violence and decreased trust in governments ' Covid policies.

"If a business is built on deceiving users and exploiting their data, it doesn't deserve praise. It needs to reform," Cook said at a privacy conference in Brussels, Belgium. He did not name Facebook specifically.

By developing its own metaverse, Meta can avoid Apple's dominance and write its own rules. However, this is a risky gamble. Meanwhile, Apple knows how to produce a product for the masses, whether it's a computer, digital music player, smartphone, tablet, or watch. They also own the new operating system for Vision Pro called visionOS. This means Meta and Apple will compete to attract developers to their side.

Disney delivered some pretty bad news for Meta at WWDC 2023. Following the demise of its metaverse division, Disney announced that its streaming service would be available on Apple's new device. While some Disney content is already available on Quest, studio executives stated that the Vision Pro experience will be entirely new. “We believe that Apple Vision Pro is a revolutionary platform that will turn our vision into reality,” a Disney official told the event audience.

(According to CNBC)

Apple unveils Vision Pro headset, priced at $3,499 . After several years of delay, Apple has officially entered the virtual reality market with the Vision Pro headset at WWDC 2023.

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