If the pixels Following Apple’s carefully planned rollout of its Vision Pro headset, the battle lines have tightened in the war for a new reality. Multiple tech powerhouses — and some emerging upstarts — are developing headsets and other gadgets to digitally enhance or replace the world our raw senses perceive. But there is a clear division in philosophy about the role these mixed reality devices will play.
Suddenly that schism matters. Just a year ago — in those glorious days when we weren’t fixated on AI writing our essays and maybe wiping out humanity — tech’s great obsession was the metaverse. Every company seemed to have a strategy for this emerging paradigm. Disappointing sales and the rise of generative AI pushed that discussion to the background. But Apple’s splashy entry has reignited interest — and challenged the way the former undisputed king of the metaverse, Mark Zuckerberg, pursues mixed reality. Other players in the field will choose between these paths. Even giants like Microsoft. When I recently spoke to the CEO, Satya Nadella, he reaffirmed his commitment to the pursuit of ‘presence’. (Then we continued talking about AI.)
Nine years ago, Zuckerberg’s exposure to VR via the Oculus headset – then a bare-bones Kickstarter concoction – was like a lightning strike to his skull. In no time he became convinced that digitally generated reality was the platform of the future. Predictably, the founder of the world’s dominant social media company predicted that this new technology would be social. In 2014, he bought the startup for $2 billion. While progress has been slow — his original timeline of about 10 years is almost over — he never lost faith, even changing his company’s name to Meta to reflect his dedication. Zuckerberg embraces the term “metaverse,” the name novelist Neal Stephenson gave to the concept of an alternative digital world, and has a long-term goal of providing the tools to take us elsewhere—and socialize there.
Indeed, in the long run. Meta’s headsets, called Quest, are the most popular VR rigs, but they’re far from ubiquitous. Zuckerberg’s path to change is paved with immersive activities such as gaming, fitness, and VR social spaces where people are represented by cartoonish avatars. Crazy as this is, I’ve found that these avatars can foster a semi-lifelike sense of belonging. But Meta’s main social app, Horizon Worlds, is still clunky and tiresome. Last year, a Meta manager had to berate employees for not using it for their meetings. Nevertheless, the company spends billions on research to improve the technology, convinced that its approach is the right one.
With its $3,500 Vision Pro headset — lighter and more advanced than Meta’s Quest devices — Apple has taken a different course. As I wrote in my first impressions of the device earlier this month, the company sees its operating system, VisionOs, in the tradition of previous developments in natural computer interfaces, such as the graphical interface, and pointing devices such as the mouse or touchscreen. James Wagner Au, author of the new book Create a metaverse that matterssays, “It makes more sense to think of Vision Pro as the successor to the Mac Pro – a device for high-quality content creators who would find it appealing to have a single device where the multiple screens can be accommodated in a single device or reality.”
Not once at Apple’s event was the word “metaverse” uttered. Instead, the company’s wordsmiths said the device was a foray into “spatial computing.” The Vision Pro is primarily a solitary device that you can use to work or watch a movie. The most social component is that when a human gets close to you in the real world, the digital screen that consumes your consciousness dims enough to let you know someone is approaching, perhaps asking you for a stapler.
