Virtual reality and expansive ventures into how one sees the world have expanded greatly over the past decade, especially in terms of what the devices are capable of doing and their travel accessibility. People are more willing to use virtual reality even outside of a gaming context, where it was first popularized, and in their everyday lives. With that has come a push for companies outside of Meta to put out devices that can keep the excitement going. Meta has dominated the field thus far with the release of the Meta quest models, formerly known as Oculus.
Apple has been working on developing this aspect of technology since 2017 and the release of their product has been rumored for years. Following the product’s announcement in June 2023, the Vision Pro came out on February 2nd.
An advantage to the Apple aspect of the system is the connection to other Apple devices. Users can access their messages, notes, and any other items they have on their iPhone or iPad and ideally be able to work on the device as they would on any other Apple product. To create similar conditions to using the web in any other format, they can work in multiple tabs and switch between them as they could otherwise. Except, they would not need to use a mouse, trackpad or click on a screen, but instead could control what they see through eyesight trackers, hand movement, and voice control
For those who have glasses and/or contacts, there is a ZEISS optical insert, which helps correct vision problems in the virtual space. It could also allow for longer usage time with less eye strain or having to wear contacts for those who typically do not.
Tim Cook, Apple CEO, believes that the Vision Pro is revolutionary. “[Vision Pro] introduces us to spatial computing. Built upon decades of Apple innovation, Vision Pro is years ahead and unlike anything created before — with a revolutionary new input system and thousands of groundbreaking innovations. It unlocks incredible experiences for our users and exciting new opportunities for our developers,” Cook said.
However, compared to others in the virtual reality space, the Vision Pro comes at a much higher cost. The Vision Pro comes in at $3500 with 256 GB of storage, and with the extra optical insert and even more storage that price can go as high as $4000.The Meta Quest 3, produced by Meta after their purchase of Oculus and expansion into the ‘Metaverse’, is $500 with 128 GB.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, weighed in on the headset in a review of his company’s competition. “It seems like there are a lot of people who just assumed that Vision Pro would be higher quality because it’s Apple and it costs $3,000 more, but honestly, I’m pretty surprised that Quest is so much better for the vast majority of things that people use these headsets for, [especially] with that price differential.
“Quest is the better product, period,” Zuckerberg said. Anyone who is thinking of making a purchase in this domain would have to consider not only the financial impact of the decision they are making, but also the practicality and usefulness of the device they are choosing. Although companies are making greater strides into reality augmentation and virtual reality, change cannot truly happen without the support and trends of the consumers.
