I worked for Meta on Quest 2. I also bought the Apple Vision Pro (I returned it today, actually).
I think Quest is better tech right now, but I think the Apple Vision Pro is the better product. I'm excited to see the competition here, either way.
I think Quest is better tech right now, but I think the Apple Vision Pro is the better product. I'm excited to see the competition here, either way.
for me "better product" equates to something like "the better thing to buy" which includes cost, and for me the quest 3 is leading in category by a large margin.
The hardware, as I see it, is mostly going to be similar between the two companies (except for form factor, where I see Apple absolutely winning). The consumer market (Apple got people wearing this thing on the subway; I have no qualms giving me eye tracking data to Apple, but I do with Meta and have worked on their recommendation algorithms as well) and the software quality/ecosystem is going to be what makes Apple win this. Meta always positions themselves as the Android of the headset market, which I believe they will be.
My point still stands: I love that there's competition here. If I get to see the laptop and phone be 'legacy' devices in my lifetime, I will be happy to have seen such a transition in technology.
We still have to see what sellable product Apple will throw at us.
Actually I’m pretty confident that Apple may be onto something and that it’s maybe the "next big thing". But they’ll need to cut the price by at least half if not more if they want to bootstrap the market enough to make it the next iPhone.
Of course they could just market it like a high end spatial monitor but I don’t believe they’ll do : they need mass adoption if they want developers to create applications to sell on the App Store.
The $3500 dollar AVP has just created an entirely new interface for people to interact with computers. There are developers that are working as I type this to get first mover advantage on a new surface that could be as influential as the shift to mobile. Numbers are low now (I read 10,000 subscribers from... the Verge I think?), but that's now, when we're debating the usability of the entire platform.
What is the app that will make you buy Apple Vision Pro 3 in 2 years?
I don’t know and I think, neither Apple. But I do think that, like the GPS embedded in the smartphone 15 years ago, AR is full of potential to change the world but we’ll have to endure a first generation of "10m high shit emoji & VisionBeer & smart small games" before someone finds out.
This is one reason halo pricing makes sense.
Apple isn't confident on use cases and feature set, and will obviously evolve into an AVc value model at some point.
So if there exist some people who will pay AVP prices, why not put it out there in the market, sell a few, kickstart their AR/VR software ecosystem, figure out how their customers actually like using it.
And then try for the knockout blow with the AVc, informed by that.
I don't know anyone who has said that the Quest has better tech.
Better ergonomics, product market fit, ecosystem etc. but not tech.
Apple Vision Pro has better hand tracking and eye tracking IMO. Quest has better shared experiences and experience diversity. SLAM feels the same between Quest 3 and AVP. AVP hardware is better, but not significantly.
Being able to iMessage while watching full screen Netflix on Safari while lying in my bed was a game changer (product side). Who cares about the keyboard (as zuck states in the video)? I can either use the magic keyboard from Apple or just use dictate (another thing Siri does surprisingly better than Meta).
The kicker? I didn't stumble upon any related to nausea. Having worked on Quest 2, this was a major concern at the time. I couldn't believe how few posts I saw[0].
I'm very happy to hear that your mom is using it! And without vertigo can be a very big step for these devices.
[0] - I'm sure there are posts. I just didn't see any when I was searching about how to return it.
I know the operation is statistically safe but risks are pretty real.
To pile on the anecdotes, I corrected a -6.5 left eye and a -5.5 right eye with LASIK, had dry eyes the first year, and never had any issues afterward. Life changer.
Sure, and that'w why my doctor don't want to operate me on lasik because of amblyopia.
No more LASIK for me. That's why I returned the AVP. What I'm doing is fine now, but the AVP triggered something in my eyes that I don't want to address just yet.
I’d be bery interested to hear an educated view on this topic.