(San Francisco) “It may be the future of computing, but it’s not the one I want,” Meta (Facebook, Instagram) boss Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday of the new Apple’s mixed reality headset during a meeting with employees, according to the specialized site The Verge.
On Monday, Apple presented an ultra-sophisticated virtual and augmented reality headset, the Apple brand’s first foray into this terrain largely dominated until now by its neighbor Meta.
A few days before, Mark Zuckerberg had announced the upcoming release of the Quest 3. This new model of mixed reality headset will be marketed from $500 in the fall, compared to $3,500 for Apple’s Vision Pro in 2024.
Quest headsets allow people to “interact in new ways and feel closer” while “being active and doing things,” the boss assured his employees, as an example of “the difference in value and vision” with his rival.
Apple’s demo videos “showed a person sitting on their couch by themselves,” the executive continued. “It may be the future of computing, but it’s not the one I want.”
At the end of 2021, Facebook became Meta with the idea of becoming a metaverse company, described by Mark Zuckerberg as the future of the internet, after the personal computer and the mobile.
But the presentation of the Apple headset impressed many observers, in particular thanks to the wheel that allows you to adjust the degree of opacity of the screen, to switch fluidly from augmented reality (AR, superimposition of virtual elements on reality) to virtual reality (VR, full immersion).
Users will thus be able to remain present in their physical environment. And in virtual universes, they will be represented by an ultra-realistic avatar.
According to CNBC, Mark Zuckerberg also spoke on Thursday of upcoming advances in generative artificial intelligence, the darling of Silicon Valley.
“We will play a unique and important role in the industry by bringing these technologies to billions of users with new tools that no one else will have,” the boss promised, according to the American business channel.
Microsoft and Google have taken the lead in this AI capable of generating all kinds of text and images on a simple request in everyday language.
Meta plans to give Instagram users the ability to edit photos this way, and also include advanced chatbots on its Messenger and WhatsApp channels, CNBC notes.
It was the first in-person general meeting at the group’s headquarters in Menlo Park since 2020.
