“‘I think there’s a chance that them coming in actually increases demand for the overall space and that Quest 3 is actually the primary beneficiary of that.’”
That was Meta Platforms Inc. META, +0.14% CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussing the announcement of Apple Inc.’s AAPL, +0.22% new Vision Pro headset during an interview with podcaster Lex Fridman on Thursday.
Apple’s headset, which won’t debut until 2024, is set to challenge Meta’s Quest product, but Zuckerberg said that Apple’s foray into the space may actually help his company.
“The $ 3,500 price, on the one hand I get it with all the stuff they are trying to pack in there, on the other a lot of people aren’t going to find that to be affordable,” Zuckerberg said.
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Some have scoffed at Apple’s $ 3,499 price point for its virtual-reality headset, and Zuckerberg is likely hoping that the $ 499 price tag for Meta’s Quest 3, which will be released this fall, could help his product stand out.
Zuckerberg also downplayed Apple’s new headset during a Thursday all-hands meeting at Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook.
“Every demo that they [Apple] showed [at the company’s developers event on Monday] was a person sitting on a couch by themselves,” Zuckerberg said. “I mean, that could be the vision of the future of computing, but like, it’s not the one that I want.”
The Vision Pro is Apple’s first new hardware release since the Apple Watch in 2014, and the headset won’t be ready for another year. Analysts are divided on which company’s headset will be able to gain traction among consumers.
Read on: The headset face-off: How Apple’s Vision Pro compares with the Meta Quest Pro, beyond a huge price gap