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Meta’s first true AR headset will likely come with a handheld. That’s a huge plus for Apple, which could also bring an AR headset, and has already sold millions of handhelds with the iPhone.
Meta’s AR headset, which is the centerpiece of Zuckerberg’s Metaverse vision and a class of device that The CEO of Meta calls it the “holy grail”, should launch in 2026, according to recent reports. Assuming you don’t mind technical challenges.
AR headsets should be powerful and work for a long time, while being thin and fashionable. It is a major obstacle. The main computing unit will therefore most likely be outsourced to an external device, as current chips and batteries cannot do both together. The smartphone would be perfectly suited to this task; After all, we carry it with us all the time.
Our vision of real AR glasses will be require years of progress making our devices thinner, lighter, faster and more powerful, while consuming far less battery power and generating far less heat,” said Meta’s Chief Technology Officer. Andrew Bosworth said in his last annual report. He acknowledged that about half of Metaverse’s spending is on AR.
Apple’s Grace AR Headset
This is where the problems start for Meta. The iPhone dominates the smartphone market in the United States, but is not a good AR player for Meta.
Apple has privileged access to hardware and interfaces And it can be very difficult for Meta to use the smartphone as a player. Meta is at the mercy of Apple’s goodwill in this regard.
Whereas the Apple likely has its own AR headset in developmentyou can already guess how accommodating the company will be. No matter how good Meta’s AR headset is, it’ll never work as well with iOS as Apple’s own product..
This is also suggested by The Information’s recent report, which describes how Meta “spent months trying” to launch in September 2021. Ray-Ban Stories Video Glassesa potential predecessor to Meta’s AR headset, to work with the iPhone.
Meta wanted photos taken on the glasses to be automatically downloaded to users’ phones without them having to open Meta’s app. But due to how Apple’s software works, the team couldn’t get auto-download to work when the phone was idle. At the last moment, they had to change course, leading to a chaotic stampede before the product launchsays the report.
Who wants another device in their pocket?
I own the Ray-Ban Stories and can confirm that uploading photos and videos is quite tedious – or at least could be solved in a more elegant way.
You first need to open Meta’s own smartphone app, then wait for the Bluetooth connection between the headset and the smartphone (or initiate it manually), then start the download. If there were the same Ray-Ban stories with the same features from Apple where this process was automated, I would probably buy the product from Apple. And that’s just one example of how Apple could win a competitive advantage through better iOS integration.
The information further writes that Meta tried to develop a smartwatch that can also work as a reader. But the the first of three planned devices was dropped this year. The company is also working on a handheld in the form of a smartphone, which adds.
But here, too, you can ask the rather rhetorical question of which consumers will prefer: AR headsets that can be conveniently used with the iPhone, or AR headsets that require a device other than the iPhone. Meta’s AR headset will not be able to replace the smartphone, at least not in the first generation.
Without forgetting the price disadvantage for Meta if it has to sell headphones and computer, while Apple probably only offers headphones for iPhone.
Meta’s iPhone dilemma
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth confirmed this issue during a Q&A session on Instagram. Probably and for the foreseeable future, the first true AR headsets would require a handheld, said Meta’s chief technology officer. He added that the potential advantage for Apple is that customers already have one with them and don’t need to carry around an extra device.
Eventually, Meta wants to get out of the Apple and Google ecosystem and offer its own new IT platform. This is a key point in Zuckerberg’s grand Metaverse plan. The problem for the Meta is that this transition is fluid: humanity will not go from smartphones to AR headsets in a day. The former represent the dominant computing paradigm, and this will likely remain the case for a long time.
Meta needs the smartphone to create a new computing platform. In this sense, the Google and Apple ecosystem is akin to a ladder. The question is whether he will support Zuckerberg – or crumble under him.
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