Tech giant Apple has unveiled its first major product in over seven years, a mixed reality headset that could strike the final blow to the “metaverse”. Silicon Valley rival Meta was so confident it could create a metaverse—the idea of ​​a 3D immersive Internet—that in 2021 it changed its name to Facebook and began pouring billions of dollars into the project. But that idea was thwarted by a failed launch, deceptive graphics, the lack of a clear path to profitability, and a general feeling that few people know what it’s all about.

Meta’s Reality Labs, the division that runs the Metaverse, has lost $4 billion so far, and the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is talking more and more about artificial intelligence than the metaverse. In his presentation on Monday, Apple boss Tim Cook unveiled the Vision Pro, a stylish headset that resembles ski goggles. This allows the user to communicate, work, watch movies, listen to music and even choose to immerse or observe the outside world.

Cook meaningfully made no mention of the metaverse during the hour-long launch, but instead, Apple promised the birth of the “spatial computing” era.

“Tim Cook has officially said he doesn’t like to use that word, he doesn’t think it has any real meaning,” said James Whatley, chief strategy officer at Diva, a marketing agency. “The sooner the meta moves away from that word, the better positioned they will be in the fight against Apple’s invasion of space.”

“Convincing Vision”

Meta can still claim that its product still has an edge over the startup Apple. First and most obvious is price—Apple’s Vision Pro weighs in at a whopping $3,499, which is more than double the price of Meta’s premium Quest Pro headset. Tom Ffiske, who runs the exclusive newsletter Immersive Wire, stated that Apple is clearly pushing a different Meta strategy.

“Apple doesn’t want to build a large XR (augmented reality) ecosystem with cheaper devices like the Meta with the Quest series,” he wrote.

“Instead, the company aims to monetize an already profitable portion of its target audience with highly profitable subscriptions and software.”

And more generally, he told AFP that Apple “has a high enough level of confidence to legitimize the product category.” Martin Pearce of tech site The Information believes Apple likened Meta to the defunct Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry. He wrote that Apple “provides a believable vision of the long-term potential of augmented reality,” a well-positioned space to dominate at Meta’s expense.

“Real experience”

The soft launch of the headset, complete with a stunning video that Apple claims is “like magic,” put a clear mark. Users were shown enjoying a “cinematic” movie experience, browsing 3D photos and videos, participating in FaceTime calls, browsing web pages with one hand, and connecting to game consoles.

“Apple rightly, and very traditionally for Apple, based it on actual experience,” Whatley said.

He compared this to Meta’s vision to “create a 3D avatar of yourself with legs that may or may not exist in a world where there is nothing to do”. But analysts are still divided on whether such glasses will gain widespread popularity. Google tried and failed, basically ending the Google Glass experiment this year.

Meta’s Quest headset failed to attract the attention of experts and gamers. But both Ffiske and Watley stressed that immersion technology is still in its infancy and eventually there will be enough room for the two Silicon Valley giants.

“Apple’s announcement will upgrade all ships, including the Meta,” said Ffiske.