Despite the Vision Pro's $3,500 price tag, which is almost 12 times more expensive than the $300 Quest 3S, Apple and Meta are expected to be direct competitors in the XR space in the near future. According to a report prepared by Bloomberg's Mark GurmanApple may be rethinking its XR strategy going forward after Meta unveiled its impressively thin AR glasses prototype, the Orion.
Quoting Apple experts, Gurman reports that Apple “seems aware that it needs to rethink its approach to headsets, but there is no consensus on how to do that,” further detailing a number of options currently on the Cupertino tech giant's table.
Gurman argues that the company could continue on its current path by offering some form of Vision Pro Lite, making Vision Pro tracking cheaper. Separately, the second-generation Vision Pro may include higher-end components such as the new M4 chip; this is basically your regularly scheduled upgrade path to deliver a cheaper version of the Vision Pro to the masses, alongside a hypothetically Vision Pro 2 for production consumers.
Apple has devoted tons of resources to ensuring VisionOS works seamlessly with both the XR and standard mobile apps; It puts it close to the iPad in terms of functionality, but adds the ability to connect to a Mac for work. All this ecosystem integration couldn't be tighter than removing the onboard computing from the Vision Pro and transferring it to the second option, the iPhone.
This will make the headset significantly lighter, but will also likely make it more reliant on the latest iPhone to power it. It also makes the Vision Pro cheaper and probably more attractive because it will be installed as a peripheral rather than as a standalone general computing device like today. Whether thermal management will be connected or wireless and which devices it will support is open to speculation.
Gurman also notes that Apple is also considering its own smart glasses, similar to the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. These glasses have been so successful so far that it has prompted Meta to reorganize Reality Labs to better focus on smart wearables.
Unlike Meta's Orion prototype, the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses do not fit into AR displays; instead, it relies on the appeal of taking photos, shooting videos, listening to music, and using Meta's AI-powered object recognition for the “look and tell” genre. tasks such as language translation and object search on the go. They're pretty cheap compared to the Vision Pro, going for $300 for a basic pair of smart Wayfarers.
There's also the possibility of integrating camera sensors and more AI into AirPods Pro, leveraging an existing product line with broad appeal; This leads to some smarter headphones that can conceptually do everything those slippery Ray-Bans can do, colored shades be damned.
There is also what Gurman calls the “holy grail path.”
“The ultimate goal is standalone augmented reality glasses that come with high-performance lenses, battery system, on-board computer, cameras, eye tracking and other onboard components, yet still have the size and weight of regular glasses.” Gurman says.
Notably, a report in early 2023 suggested that Apple had shelved its most promising AR glasses project, which would mean a reboot of the Meta with the aim of competing with its own Orion hardware.
We're likely several years away from companies using a wireless computing unit, an EMG wristband for hand tracking, and the consumer-friendly form factor and wide field of view (FOV) provided by Orion all packaged in a single package. Class-leading 70-degree FOV.
Currently Orion's production cost is somewhere near $10,000 per unit; This will likely drop with the addition of cheaper components and possibly a smaller FOV, as current silicon carbide waveguide optics are difficult and expensive to make. Meta CTO and Reality Labs chief Andrew Bosworth announced that a device similar to Orion would be priced closer to smartphones or laptops and be available to consumers before 2030.
None of these options outlined above appear to be mutually exclusive when it comes to Apple's war chest; Gurman notes that some or all of these products may make progress. At least from the outside, this leaves Meta well-positioned to make it big in the coming era of AR glasses, leaving Apple behind with an expensive XR headset with no visible roadmap because the company hasn't publicly released prototypes, leaving us alone leaving. Expect more timely leaks that will lead to another patented Appleone more thing.