Apple and Meta (former Facebook) have locked horns over a number of technologies like collecting users’ identifiable data, 30% commission for in-app purchases via the App Store, and the App Tracking Transparency feature. Now, both companies are developing mixed AR/VR headsets but with noticeable functional and ideological differences to deliver contrasting metaverse experiences to users.
Commenting on the likely competition between the two tech giants in the AR/VR headset market, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that his company is in a “very deep, philosophical competition” to build the metaverse with Apple and it will market its new AR/VR headset as a cheaper and more open alternative to Apple’s alleged mixed reality headset.
Unlike Apple iOS, Meta aims to develop an Android-like open ecosystem for its metaverse
When Zuckerberg announced the rebranding of Facebook as Meta, he said that the new name represents the company’s new direction to build a metaverse, a virtual world where users will be able to socialize, conduct business, and more.
On the other hand, Apple has openly denounced the concept of completely transporting users from the real world to a virtual world. The tech giant also clarified that its mixed reality headset will be designed for short-term usage, mostly for watching videos or gaming.
The Verge reports that at the company’s internal all-hands meeting, Zuckerberg said that his company has philosophical and ideological differences with Apple, and its new AR/VR headset will compete with the Cupertino tech giant’s by offering a more open ecosystem like Android to consumers.
I think it’s pretty clear that Apple is going to be a competitor for us, not just as a product but philosophically. We’re approaching this in an open way and trying to build a more open ecosystem. We’re trying to make more stuff interoperable with Android. We’re trying to develop the metaverse in a way where you can bring your virtual goods from one world to another. We created the Metaverse Open Standards Group with a bunch of other folks that you just mentioned, and Apple didn’t join. But I don’t think that’s a surprise. Apple, for a few generations of computing now, has been the closed provider of computing.
“This is a competition of philosophies and ideas, where they believe that by doing everything themselves and tightly integrating that they build a better consumer experience. And we believe that there is a lot to be done in specialization across different companies, and [that] will allow a much larger ecosystem to exist.”
Recently, Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft, and other tech companies formed a new “metaverse standards body” to make their digital worlds compatible with each other. And Apple is not part of the group.
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