Mark Zuckerberg just delivered his definitive verdict on the Apple Vision Pro ― the single biggest competitor to his company's Meta Quest 3 headset. The 39-year-old multi-billionaire is no stranger to virtual reality having spent an eye-watering $2 billion to acquire then-industry leader Oculus VR a decade ago.
Since then, Zuckerberg rebranded his company from "Facebook" to "Meta" to reflect his ambitions to dominate the metaverse — a buzzword in California's Silicon Valley that refers to an online virtual space where people are represented by a digital avatar.
The latest headset from Zuckerberg's team, the Meta Quest 3, lets you play video games, watch movies and series on virtual IMAX-sized cinema screens, and hold meetings with friends and colleagues using a digital avatar in the metaverse. It has a built-in web browser, so you can place expansive virtual screens running Gmail, Microsoft Word, and Canva in your surroundings to get some work done too.
Quest 3 costs £479 in the UK, or roughly $500 in the United States. Meta has kept its predecessor, the Quest 2, on the market at a lower starting price of £249.
In comparison, Apple Vision Pro ― only available in the United States for now, with a release date for the UK and mainland Europe rumoured for later this year ― costs $3,500. That's roughly £2,790 converted.
Mark Zuckerberg clearly preordered one of these headsets as the Meta founder has now delivered his definitive ruling on the device, saying he was “pretty surprised” how much better he believes the lower-cost Quest devices are despite being “seven times less expensive”.
He also called the lack of external wires on Quest 3, in contrast with the cable that connects the external battery pack that powers the Vision Pro, "a big deal".
Speaking in a video post to his Instagram page, Mr Zuckerberg gave a short review of his experience with the Vision Pro, and while complimenting the Apple device’s eye-tracking feature ― which enables users to control the device using their eyes ― the Meta founder claimed his company’s devices were superior.
“I have to say that before this, I expected that Quest would be the better value for most people since it’s really good and it’s seven times less expensive, but after using it, I don’t just think Quest is the better value, I think Quest is the better product, period,” he said.
“Overall, Quest is better for the vast majority of things that people use mixed reality for now. I think it’s just a lot more comfortable, and we designed it to weigh 120 grams less which makes a really big difference on your face. There’s no wires that get in the way when you move around – it’s a big deal.”
Meta Quest 3 supports mixed reality, which brings digital elements into the world around you (sometimes referred to as augmented reality), and virtual reality, which surrounds you with an entirely digital world
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He added that he believed the Quest had a bigger field of view along with a brighter screen.
“Honestly, I’m pretty surprised that Quest is so much better for the vast majority of things that people use these headsets for with that price differential,” he said.
The tech billionaire ended his social media broadcast by acknowledging that some “fanboys” would criticise him or others who “dare to question if Apple is going to be the leader” in a certain technology sector.
He then compared the growing mixed reality headset market to the smartphone and PC markets, and how Apple’s “closed” model, where it controls what appears on its devices, had been historically successful in some sectors, but not others.
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“The reality is that every generation of computing has an open and a closed model,” he said.
“And yeah, in mobile, Apple’s closed model won, but it’s not always that way – if you go back to the PC era, Microsoft’s open model was the winner. In this next generation, Meta is going to be the open model, and I really want to make sure that the open model wins out again.”
Additional Reporting By Martyn Landi, PA Technology Correspondent
