Meta Debuts $1500 'Quest Pro' Mixed Reality Headset Ahead of Apple's 2023 AR/VR Device

[Mike WA4D]

Hopefully this tech will filter down into the Meta quest 3. As $1500 is way over for the average consumer. I have zero faith in apple being able to compete in this space...unless they can break from tradition and release a good product on first release.

I hope the Apple device is double the Meta price. The masses don’t matter— these are enterprise level devices. The “average consumer” the working class the unemployed the poorly educated will have no use for these devices as others here have so loudly proclaimed.

 

[TVreporter]

For $1500 you'd think they'd also throw in a complimentary tube of lubricant to improve both the pre and post purchasing experience...

Porn site developers are waiting to launch their apps for this.

 

[michaelprescott]

I hope the Apple device is double the Meta price. The masses don’t matter— these are enterprise level devices. The “average consumer” the working class the unemployed the poorly educated will have no use for these devices as others here have so loudly proclaimed.

While I don't hope for higher prices, I do agree this first round of next-gen VR/MR/AR hardware and developer stacks are for the developers, content creators, and innovators. It's the right strategy. We need higher end machines to produce. Also, similar to Tesla, I think this strategy will work financially and for identifying what best should roll to consumers. You find far less $130,000 Model S's on the road than you do Model 3's, which have become quite common now, but the S's were very important step to Model 3's. Likewise Quest 3 and similar lower-priced models will advance for end-users as a result of advances in pro tech.

It's my opinion all of this, this HUGE investment that so many companies are making in this space is world-changing, revolutionary technology that will greatly improve how we create, produce, collaborate, and communicate. Just in 3D content production alone, a virtual and immersive space with the right development stack will be many times better than mice and keyboards and arrays of monitors. I'm looking forward to new forms of media, movies, virtual events, and infinite workspaces, and I strongly believe that console gaming/pc gaming will rapidly transition to VR as well. Truly exciting progress... though I'm disappointed that Apple isn't in the lead right now, at least not publicly. I think/hope they're going to leap far ahead of Meta in hardware quality and usability.

 

[raindogg]

Are people really going to spend $1500 to get bombarded with ads and propaganda?

 

[Mike WA4D]

While I don't hope for higher prices, I do agree this first round of next-gen VR/MR/AR hardware and developer stacks are for the developers, content creators, and innovators. It's the right strategy. We need higher end machines to produce. Also, similar to Tesla, I think this strategy will work financially and for identifying what best should roll to consumers. You find far less $130,000 Model S's on the road than you do Model 3's, which have become quite common now, but the S's were very important step to Model 3's. Likewise Quest 3 and similar lower-priced models will advance for end-users as a result of advances in pro tech.

It's my opinion all of this, this HUGE investment that so many companies are making in this space is world-changing, revolutionary technology that will greatly improve how we create, produce, collaborate, and communicate. Just in 3D content production alone, a virtual and immersive space with the right development stack will be many times better than mice and keyboards and arrays of monitors. I'm looking forward to new forms of media, movies, virtual events, and infinite workspaces, and I strongly believe that console gaming/pc gaming will rapidly transition to VR as well. Truly exciting progress... though I'm disappointed that Apple isn't in the lead right now, at least not publicly. I think/hope they're going to leap far ahead of Meta in hardware quality and usability.

“Truly Exciting”! That’s the headline of your missive. Though embracing and showing enthusiasm for these development is scorned by more than a few here.— I worked in broadcasting. I was a Technical Operations Field producer. Large Multi cam events. Sports, Political events, Parades, News and nonsense. Such events require lots of people performing different kinds of tasks and roles. To choreograph the planning (and hopefully smooth running) of these productions I was a Heavy PowerPoint/Keynote user. To show the different players on the team their role and to explain the role of their teammates. No more than 10 seconds on a slide- Say it Show it and move on. That was my distributed “AR” before AR! Laughs. I find myself wondering what tools would I use to convey those messages/images and information in a Mixed Reality world?

Your Tesla metaphor and progressive description is a good one. The Gaming sector get’s all the attention because it’s familiar. But the “”new forms of media, movies, virtual evens and infinite workspaces” is the dream. 20 years from now (maybe less) No surgeon will operate on internal organs without some form of AI/AR. (I didn’t make that up— I just happened to have read it this morning! Ha!). If wars are still fought using human beings— I’m thinking battlefield medicine will also be transformed.—. Thanks for the smart note and analysis. I enjoyed it.— Mike in Virginia

 

[michaelprescott]

Are people really going to spend $1500 to get bombarded with ads and propaganda?

I doubt it. High-end production systems will be used by developers and content producers, and $1500 is actually not expensive for a production tool. Consumer models will likely target new types of mixed reality applications, media and entertainment, and absolutely gaming. Within the latter two, a sensible and likely accepted approach to advertising would be product placement, just like today's movies and games. The moment they try to go old-school with web-like or satellite television obtrusive ads, they'll lose their audience.

 

[coolbreeze2]

They will need a financing plan to offer the customers. Not a lot of people got $1500 laying around to spend on something that is in no way a necessity.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I hope the Apple device is double the Meta price. The masses don’t matter— these are enterprise level devices. The “average consumer” the working class the unemployed the poorly educated will have no use for these devices as others here have so loudly proclaimed.

Nearly everybody on this site represents the ‘average consumer’ so what you’re saying here is VR will be largely irrelevant to 99% of the population. Yet you wonder and get annoyed why people aren’t raving about it here and then you suggest it’s not even aimed at most people anyway . The snobbish resentment you proudly display on here towards most people you’re discussing with is rather pitiful I would say.

 

[name99]

I realize that Meta gets a lot of hate, but I’m more excited about this announcement than I have been about any of the Apple ones of late. Meta tries to show us behind the curtain in terms of research that they are doing and what they foresee as the next steps of the platform. While WWDC has done this to some extent, it’s limited in its scope, and feels in many ways stale.

What was the breakout feature in iOS 16? The Lock Screen. That’s the biggest change in iOS 16. You could say the new multitasking view in iPadOS but it’s all just small upgrades at this point.

Meta is trying to build a whole new category and I for one am all in.

Do I trust Meta more than I did before? Heck no. But at least they are trying something new and have some ‘courage’.

Apple and Meta are doing the same thing; the difference is that Meta is doing it in public.
Is this a good idea? Unclear, but probably not. Doing things in public means

- the rest of the world gets bored. Every year you announce a great demo of your HW [soon to be available]. By the time it's actually available no-one cares or even notices because it sounds like five years of earlier announcements.

- your narrative is hijacked by naysayers, and there are ALWAYS more naysayers and people who just don't get it. We're already seeing this with Meta. Regardless of how good the new HW is, the narrative is "doesn't do [[whatever it is I want this HW to do (generally play games)]]".

- if your team/management lack self confidence, they then keep fiddling with the product to try to satisfy the naysayers (who, pretty much by definition, are NEVER satisfied).

The only way to avoid this is to do the work in public and present the whole thing (HW, SW, use cases, ready to buy in three months) as one item. Doing this you can go anywhere from slightly wrong to very wrong (you don't get early outsider feedback, and you make mistakes like Apple assuming Apple Watch should operate as a fashion item) but the public alternative seems much worse.

Point is:
- Apple are likely just as far ahead as Meta, just not visibly so.

- Meta is already lacking the confidence to sell this product well. They should be selling it as a business tool, with business use cases. But they keep wanting to pretend it's a sexy new gaming device (which it is not yet, and will not be until it is substantially cheaper and lighter).
This unwillingness to commit to doing a single task well (and growing from there) will continually hurt them as they keep insisting it's good for games, keep being told it's not, and that dialog swamps all the legitimate use cases.

 

[Mike WA4D]

Are people really going to spend $1500 to get bombarded with ads and propaganda?

Nearly everybody on this site represents the ‘average consumer’ so what you’re saying here is VR will be largely irrelevant to 99% of the population. Yet you wonder and get annoyed why people aren’t raving about it here and then you suggest it’s not even aimed at most people anyway

. The snobbish resentment you proudly display on here towards most people you’re discussing with is rather pitiful I would

Nearly everybody on this site represents the ‘average consumer’ so what you’re saying here is VR will be largely irrelevant to 99% of the population. Yet you wonder and get annoyed why people aren’t raving about it here and then you suggest it’s not even aimed at most people anyway . The snobbish resentment you proudly display on here towards most people you’re discussing with is rather pitiful I would say.

Yes class resentment is widespread. Meta’s $1500 headset, and Magic Leap’s Enterprise $3300 device and even Apple’s coming mixed reality device at a suggested $2,000 is not for the average consumer rankles many like you. I am amused and enjoy mocking the “we just have no use for it” crowd. I don’t care about the “average” consumer. they don’t matter at this stage of development. I’m enjoying myself TRD.

 

[chabig]

Porn site developers are waiting to launch their apps for this.

Brainstorm (1983) ⭐ 6.4 | Sci-Fi, Thriller

1h 46m | PG

www.imdb.com

 

[Cameront9]

I watched the keynote because I'm genuinely interested in the tech, but I have yet to be convinced that businesses want this. I certainly would hate a VR meeting. I like being able to turn the camera off on a Teams call when I want to. There's no reason for my camera to be on for 2 and a half hours when I'm not the one speaking. I can turn it off and get other work done.

The most chilling part of the keynote to me was when they were talking about how you could have three big virtual monitors inside VR and maybe someday you wouldn't even need a monitor in real life at all. That's their end goal. Rows of people stuffed in workspaces like sardines with no real-world amenities because it's all in the meta verse.

Ready Player One is a problematic book for many reasons (don't get me started on the author), but the lesson of the book is indeed "maybe we should try to live our lives outside of the meta verse first". I feel like Zuck skipped that part.

 

[topdrawer]

Eh, I find there’s general hate for anything that’s not Apple here, it is MacRumors after all.

lol. there is a general hate here for all things apple. just see the apple vr threads. but again the stuff on the occulus site for this is not real. it's idealistic about how people work. we designers don't sit around a table working on the same design. most of us like to work alone even when working on the same project and only share when we are asked for an update. then we scramble to put something together. when we say we like to work together, it means we like to chat while we work.

no one uses the real time colab tools from apple or adobe. i will never let anyone work on my drawings in real time ever.

we already got vr tools for design. no one uses them and this isn't going to change that. also most meetings for designers happen between designer and client. we aren't gonna ship out a vr head set to every client. we can't even tell clients which video conference app to meet on. so their partnership with microsoft means nothing when i meet with disney and they want us to use bluejeans for example. or when i do work for google and they want us to use google drive for all our documents and not onedrive.

and meetings in vr is just lol. since covid started, most people i meet with won't even turn their camera on anymore. even when meeting clients for the first time we don't turn the camera on anymore. rarely on interviews we will, but there will usually be half the people that stay off camera. and when on camera, people don't want to be expressive with their face. no one wants a device that will duplicate their expressions, especially in a workplace. the office is not the happy place zuck and jobs think it is. it is jsut that for most of us, work.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Yes class resentment is widespread. Meta’s $1500 headset, and Magic Leap’s Enterprise $3300 device and even Apple’s coming mixed reality device at a suggested $2,000 is not for the average consumer rankles many like you. I am amused and enjoy mocking the “we just have no use for it” crowd. I don’t care about the “average” consumer. they don’t matter at this stage of development. I’m enjoying myself TRD.

It doesn’t ‘rankle’ me one iota. There’s lots of products out there I don’t have any interest in owning. Your elitist attitude and you smugly mocking people on here is what I challenged. You were mocking someone because they died of cancer on here the other day and I really don’t understand what sort of pleasure you get from coming across as confrontational and unpleasant.

 

[MacGekko]

Nearly everybody on this site represents the ‘average consumer’ so what you’re saying here is VR will be largely irrelevant to 99% of the population. Yet you wonder and get annoyed why people aren’t raving about it here and then you suggest it’s not even aimed at most people anyway . The snobbish resentment you proudly display on here towards most people you’re discussing with is rather pitiful I would say.

Writing that this site represents the average consumer is like saying that Twitter represents the average American. I don't visit this site to see what the average consumer thinks, anyone want to bet on the income and educational levels of the people that post here, probably in the upper tier, that is a compliment by the way.

I'm with most here, I would probably never use any VR/AR, but my opinion means jack, this stuff is all the future, I can think of something non consequential that one might use it for, to sit courtside at a Lakers game, how many people would pay an annual subcription for that.

Do you remember Google Glass, I loathed the idea of it, I watched when this site brutalized it and enjoyed when Google had to can it, but guess what, soon Apple will have their version along with every other major tech company, so yes, walk the streets and your fellow citizen could be recording you at any time, all ready to be uploaded to Youtube and beyond, of course everyone already has that option in their pockets but one could generally determine when another was recording them with a smartphone, with Apple's version of Google Glass, you won't be able to determine anything.

The point being this website mocking VR/AR or Meta's version of it, well, I'm not saying it is irrelevant, I'm saying I don't put much stock into it, the average Joe/Jane will use it if it entertains and makes their lives easier, regardless of what this site thinks.

 

[MacGekko]

It doesn’t ‘rankle’ me one iota. There’s lots of products out there I don’t have any interest in owning. Your elitist attitude and you smugly mocking people on here is what I challenged. You were mocking someone because they died of cancer on here the other day and I really don’t understand what sort of pleasure you get from coming across as confrontational and unpleasant.

If someone mocked another dying of cancer, that someone is a world class Dou***, I agree with you, someone like that though must possess an infinite reservoir of self hatred, pitiful is an apt word for such a person.

 

[Mike WA4D]

It doesn’t ‘rankle’ me one iota. There’s lots of products out there I don’t have any interest in owning. Your elitist attitude and you smugly mocking people on here is what I challenged. You were mocking someone because they died of cancer on here the other day and I really don’t understand what sort of pleasure you get from coming across as confrontational and unpleasant.

It appears that trying to "understand" me is stressful for you. Relax-

 

[8KYUP]

The most chilling part of the keynote to me was when they were talking about how you could have three big virtual monitors inside VR and maybe someday you wouldn't even need a monitor in real life at all. That's their end goal. Rows of people stuffed in workspaces like sardines with no real-world amenities because it's all in the meta verse.

This isn't someday. Multiple monitors has been a feature in the Quest for some time now and it is exceptional. This is every bit as applicable at home as it is at work. This enables a robust work computer / multi monitor setup anywhere. You choose the environment, real or passthrough. This can liberate the rows of people environment (cubicle hell) which is the status quo for many. You really need to try this to see the advantages.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

I hope the Apple device is double the Meta price. The masses don’t matter— these are enterprise level devices. The “average consumer” the working class the unemployed the poorly educated will have no use for these devices as others here have so loudly proclaimed.

Mike we all know Apples effort will be a Memoji extravaganza, talking unicorns galore. What use will the enterprise have for that?

 

[incoherent_1]

I realize that Meta gets a lot of hate, but I’m more excited about this announcement than I have been about any of the Apple ones of late. Meta tries to show us behind the curtain in terms of research that they are doing and what they foresee as the next steps of the platform. While WWDC has done this to some extent, it’s limited in its scope, and feels in many ways stale.

What was the breakout feature in iOS 16? The Lock Screen. That’s the biggest change in iOS 16. You could say the new multitasking view in iPadOS but it’s all just small upgrades at this point.

Meta is trying to build a whole new category and I for one am all in.

Do I trust Meta more than I did before? Heck no. But at least they are trying something new and have some ‘courage’.

Not saying I fully agree with everything you say, but a good point is made here: Competition [even from unsavory companies] pushes Apple to innovate and compete, and we all win as a result.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

It appears that trying to "understand" me is stressful for you. Relax-

Stressful? Not at all. I previously said I felt pitiful for your obvious need to write provocative and nasty things about the people you discuss with here.

 

[Hieveryone]

I will buy. The metaverse is pretty awesome. No it's fully developed at all and yes they to make it so that there is more to do. But I have oculus and it's incredible. I will buy bc I want to support the project. I think there can be a tremendous future with this technology. I hope Apple steps in the game soon. I would buy theres but they don't have a product so Meta it is.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I watched the keynote because I'm genuinely interested in the tech, but I have yet to be convinced that businesses want this. I certainly would hate a VR meeting. I like being able to turn the camera off on a Teams call when I want to. There's no reason for my camera to be on for 2 and a half hours when I'm not the one speaking. I can turn it off and get other work done.

The most chilling part of the keynote to me was when they were talking about how you could have three big virtual monitors inside VR and maybe someday you wouldn't even need a monitor in real life at all. That's their end goal. Rows of people stuffed in workspaces like sardines with no real-world amenities because it's all in the meta verse.

Ready Player One is a problematic book for many reasons (don't get me started on the author), but the lesson of the book is indeed "maybe we should try to live our lives outside of the meta verse first". I feel like Zuck skipped that part.

I don’t think VR will ever be adopted in every work place like that to be honest, even if that is a vision. For one they would need to be very cheap and can you imagine the health and safety aspect of it? People complaining of sore necks and heads from 8-10hrs use per day along with strained eyesight. Peoples hairstyles messed up by straps etc and the complaints companies would get. People sit in offices and talk to each other too and this sort of technology doesn’t really make that sort of thing easy.

VR has its place and I think it’ll more likely be in the leisure industry or in the home where people want to pay premiums for an immersive experience in sport, gaming and film. I don’t ever see it coming to the common office environment as it’s too obstructive to collaborative working and a barrier for social interaction. Even on a Teams call you want to see the other persons face, not them wearing a big eye covering headset. Facial visibility is very important in a lot of discussions in the workplace.

 

[Mike WA4D]

I will buy. The metaverse is pretty awesome. No it's fully developed at all and yes they to make it so that there is more to do. But I have oculus and it's incredible. I will buy bc I want to support the project. I think there can be a tremendous future with this technology. I hope Apple steps in the game soon. I would buy theres but they don't have a product so Meta it is.

Your enthusiastic excitement over these new devices is refreshing. Glad to see it. I’m all in as well.

 

[Mike WA4D]

I don’t think VR will ever be adopted in every work place like that to be honest, even if that is a vision. For one they would need to be very cheap and can you imagine the health and safety aspect of it? People complaining of sore necks and heads from 8-10hrs use per day along with strained eyesight. Peoples hairstyles messed up by straps etc and the complaints companies would get. People sit in offices and talk to each other too and this sort of technology doesn’t really make that sort of thing easy.

VR has its place and I think it’ll more likely be in the leisure industry or in the home where people want to pay premiums for an immersive experience in sport, gaming and film. I don’t ever see it coming to the common office environment as it’s too obstructive to collaborative working and a barrier for social interaction. Even on a Teams call you want to see the other persons face, not them wearing a big eye covering headset. Facial visibility is very important in a lot of discussions in the workplace.

It will have to be “very cheap” — Health and safety, sore necks, strained eyesight, Hairstyles? HAIRSTYLES?

This is an example of the pretentious analysis one finds here. No metrics. No Data. Navel gazing.

Run for your lives!! A “barrier to Social interaction” is coming for you!

I urge career driven knowledge workers to ignore this uninformed tripe. You should be running as fast as you can to the future. (It will be messy, ugly in places, requiring ongoing continuing education and an open mind to break through to value.). Listen to the tripe above at your peril.