Mark Zuckerberg just declared war on the iPhone

Mark Zuckerberg did not directly mention Apple by name in his latest speech about his vision of combining super-intelligent AI and hardware.

Still, the Facebook founder has publicly bet on the emergence of advanced artificial superintelligence to open the door to a post-smartphone world , a move that the WSJ says amounts to a declaration of war against Apple and the iPhone.

“Personal devices like smart glasses will understand context because they can see, listen, and interact with us throughout the day. They will become our primary computing devices,” Zuckerberg detailed how Meta will bring AI to users.

Battle of the Titans

According to WSJ , the Facebook founder has long dreamed of "dethroning" Apple as the primary computing device for users. However, whether through smartphones, VR glasses or augmented reality glasses, all have failed.

Undeterred, Zuckerberg continued to invest heavily. Offers, with salary packages of up to $100 million, were made by Meta to win top talent in the field of AI.

Coincidentally, this is also a rare area where Apple is surprisingly lagging behind. Compared to competitors like Meta or OpenAI, the Apple has consistently delayed new features of Apple Intelligence.

Mark Zuckerberg is focusing on smart glasses, which will be the next generation of computing devices. Photo: WSJ.

Facebook's co-founder calls his vision "personal superintelligence" and outlines a path to eventually achieving his desire for an Apple-like experience that combines software and hardware.

WSJ said this will be a battle with rivals including tech giants. Things will get much "hotter" if Zuckerberg can actually do what he is proposing: Infuse Meta's smart glasses with something Apple has not been able to do.

Indeed, Meta CEO is not alone in believing the time is ripe for a new order among technology platforms.

Amazon has struck a deal to acquire Bee. The wearables startup offers a wristband that tracks a user’s activity throughout the day. AI can then generate to-do lists, reminders, and other features.

Another notable deal is OpenAI’s Sam Altman teaming up with former Apple chief designer Jony Ive to create a new physical device for AI. The hope is to create a third core device after computers and smartphones.

“If you have this incredible new technology, you can get closer to the kind of computer that only exists in science fiction,” Altman said during a podcast appearance.

Zuckerberg's vision

Facebook was born just before the mobile computing era was popularized by the iPhone. In just a few short years, Zuckerberg had to rush to adapt his site to the app economy .

In his first attempt, Meta CEO tried a Facebook phone. But it was clear that the world was divided between Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android. In turn, those platforms accounted for 30% of in-app sales revenue.

Since then, Zuckerberg has been frustrated with the "power" Apple holds when billions of users access Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp through iPhones.

In an interview with talk show host and comedian Joe Rogan, Meta CEO suggested that the 15-30% fees Apple charges on the App Store are a way for the company to hide declining iPhone sales.

“I feel like Steve Jobs invented the iPhone, and now they’ve been stuck with it for 20 years,” Mark said. He also predicted that iPhone sales will decline because the versions are not that different, so it will take longer for users to upgrade.

For a while, virtual reality and the so-called metaverse promised to open up a new digital realm, giving Zuckerberg an advantage. But so far, that technological “bet” has failed to gain mainstream acceptance.

WSJ assessed that the real opportunity came to Meta when Apple's Vision Pro sales encountered problems. According to Korea Economic Daily , extended reality glasses (XR) are one of the potential products to replace smartphones in the future.

Camera in the upper corner of Ray-Ban Meta glasses. Photo: The Verge.

Combining the advantages of virtual reality and augmented reality, it is as portable as a smartphone and is a gateway to the metaverse. Using an XR headset, you can join the metaverse, where economic and social activities similar to reality take place in the virtual world.

Zuckerberg also believes that the device that will win the race for next-generation computing devices will be eyeglasses.

It looks like a regular pair of glasses, but it will have a small camera, microphone, and speaker to allow for taking photos, recording video, and recording audio. All of these features are useful pieces of data in the world of AI. Meta’s product roadmap even envisions a display built into the lenses to display an intuitive user interface.

"Once you have the display there, it unlocks a lot of value, where you can interact with an AI system all day long in this multimodal way. Glass can see the content around you, create a user interface, display information, and be very useful," Zuckerberg shared.

Source: https://znews.vn/mark-zuckerberg-vua-tuyen-chien-voi-iphone-post1574504.html