Apple could have been king where Meta now reigns supreme
Renowned Apple insider Mark Gurman had some very interesting insight to share in the latest edition of his newsletter Power On. Gurman says that he thinks that Apple could have dominated the smart glasses market by now but its uncoordinated efforts left the door open for Meta instead.
Meta, which has been investing into XR (Extended Reality) for over a decade now, is currently perhaps the most well-known name in Virtual Reality. The Meta Quest 3, Quest 3S and the Quest 2 are the most popular VR headsets on the market. Meta also released the Ray-Ban smart glasses that were such an unprecedented success that the company restructured its XR division to focus on similar wearables.
These smart glasses don’t even have a display — relying solely on speakers, a microphone and a camera — and yet users love them. And ever since the Ray-Ban smart glasses got super charged with Meta AI they have genuinely become an excellent gadget. Meta is now even trying to release a pair of smart glasses that will have an actual display before the year’s end.
But all of this success is something that, according to Gurman, Apple could have experienced as well had the company been more coordinated internally.
Apple has been considering a Ray-Ban rival for quite a while now. While the Apple Vision Pro — the company’s premium Mixed Reality headset — failed to meet sales expectations, Apple is far from done with XR. The company’s ultimate goal is something similar to the Meta Orion smart glasses: a pair of true AR glasses powered by AI and good enough to replace your smartphone.
But until then Apple wants to make do with something similar to the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses. Except for the fact that Apple has been thinking about it for so long that it has practically given away market dominance to Meta. As Gurman puts it, “Apple blew it to a social-networking company,” and he could not be more right.
It doesn’t help that Apple Intelligence is still a mess that is lagging far behind competitors like Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Apple has to fix its AI before it can even begin to consider releasing a pair of AI-powered smart glasses.
Meta, which has been investing into XR (Extended Reality) for over a decade now, is currently perhaps the most well-known name in Virtual Reality. The Meta Quest 3, Quest 3S and the Quest 2 are the most popular VR headsets on the market. Meta also released the Ray-Ban smart glasses that were such an unprecedented success that the company restructured its XR division to focus on similar wearables.
But all of this success is something that, according to Gurman, Apple could have experienced as well had the company been more coordinated internally.
The Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses were an unprecedented success. | Video credit — Meta
Apple has been considering a Ray-Ban rival for quite a while now. While the Apple Vision Pro — the company’s premium Mixed Reality headset — failed to meet sales expectations, Apple is far from done with XR. The company’s ultimate goal is something similar to the Meta Orion smart glasses: a pair of true AR glasses powered by AI and good enough to replace your smartphone.
But until then Apple wants to make do with something similar to the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses. Except for the fact that Apple has been thinking about it for so long that it has practically given away market dominance to Meta. As Gurman puts it, “Apple blew it to a social-networking company,” and he could not be more right.
It doesn’t help that Apple Intelligence is still a mess that is lagging far behind competitors like Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Apple has to fix its AI before it can even begin to consider releasing a pair of AI-powered smart glasses.
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