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Zuckerberg: Apple 'Charges As Much As It Can' for Hardware, But Meta Is Willing to Sell at a Loss to Grow the Metaverse

"I think the business model will be disruptive, in that it's typically people build hardware and they try to make a profit off of it, where if you're Apple, you build hardware and you charge as much as you can for it."

These aren't in conflict Zuck 😂. And at 1499 let's not pretend people aren't looking at you the same way no matter what you say to the contrary.
 
At $1500 it will never be more than an enthusiast niche product. If he is selling that product at a loss he needs to sell it at more of a loss.
 
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Sciomar said:
At this point Zuck will have to step aside as the face of the company, everything he says is a lie. Renaming the company didn't do enough in terms of damage control.

There is no profit loss when you monetize the customer base.
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Zuck holds majority voting rights. He isn’t going anywhere unless he wants to.
 
I'm generally an early adopter and happy to drop cash on new tech. I have a Rift and a Quest 2 but have never used either much more than for occasional gaming and a fun distraction in lockdown. Neither cost more than a few hundred dollars however. There is nothing in the VR world today that is worth anything close to $1500 as VR is still a novelty item much like 3d TVs. Either the software needs to improve exponentially to make it a must have item or the price of the headsets needs to be low enough that it is an inconsequential purchase. Anything more than $250 in my opinion and this will go the way of 3d TVs.
 
"I'm willing to sell hardware at a loss because selling hardware is not a core business of ours, and we're trying to grow user adoption of something that has no earthly appeal to anyone whose name is not Mark Zuckerberg" vs. "We will produce insanely great products and milk their profitability as long as people find them desirable and are willing to pay the premium." I think I know which of those two I'd invest in.
 
senttoschool said:
It's true. It's why Apple lost in the TV streaming stick market and in the smart speakers market. Other companies were willing to sell at break even or low margins or even at a loss in order to make money through other ways.

It'll be tough for Apple to win in the VR market unless its devices are significantly superior.
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I'm not claiming the Apple of 2022 is the Apple of 2000 - 2010, but "devices are significantly superior" describes exactly what Apple did with the MP3 player market, the smartphone market, and the tablet market. And for some reason, lots of people still buy the current versions of those products.

But if you've been listening to what Mr. Cooke has been saying lately, Apple is not interested in VR; it's going to try to make a buck in VR-like AR. At least the graphics (real video overland with AR features) will be better than Mr. Zuckerberg's digital dystopia.
 
The most ridiculous words coming out of Zuck’s stupid mouth.

He says his helmet will us ”more present”.

He says it will make us “more productive”.

How MF?

How can I be “more present” by wearing a clown ass helmet covering my face?

How will I be more productive when I cannot work harder than I currently work? I am going to break the laws of physics and become six million dollar man?

Tell me how?

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senttoschool said:
It's true. It's why Apple lost in the TV streaming stick market and in the smart speakers market. Other companies were willing to sell at break even or low margins or even at a loss in order to make money through other ways.

It'll be tough for Apple to win in the VR market unless its devices are significantly superior.
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The good news is that almost assuredly Apple's AR/VR device(s) will be significantly superior.

Apparently Zuck is aware that Apple's AR/VR device(s) will be significantly superior; hence the pre-emptive dissing of Apple's unnannounced unpriced product.
 
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Nonsense. Meta also sells its product for "as much as it can." Unfortunately for Meta, that still results in a loss. If I were a Meta shareholder I would be asking what the hell Zuckerberg is thinking. He's off on a lark with this thing, using shareholders money to subsidize his new hobby which has little or nothing to do with Facebook's main business. It's like if Jack Dorsey started Square as part of Twitter and subsidized the losses with Twitter shareholder money. Really an outrage of poor corporate governance.
 
senttoschool said:
It's true. It's why Apple lost in the TV streaming stick market and in the smart speakers market. Other companies were willing to sell at break even or low margins or even at a loss in order to make money through other ways.

It'll be tough for Apple to win in the VR market unless its devices are significantly superior.
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Apple lost? Really? Thats news to me. I love my Apple TV and know many that feel the same. Maybe it didn't sell as many units as a cheap $30 unit but I wouldn't call it a loss either. It isn't always just about number of units sold.

Its a great product overall and does so much more than just stream video. I use it as a gaming console frequently when paired with a Xbox controller. Its really a great console system for casual gaming from the couch. I prefer to play many iOS games this way vs on a tiny phone using on screen controls.
 
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SoldOnApple said:
Apple will prove it can charge as much as it can again with the AR/VR headset done right.
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Actually, if Apple is smart (and they are) they probably will not charge as much as it can again. Instead Apple should, and probably will, price appropriate to jump start the product category. Not cheap for sure, but optimized to reach the essential early users like developers. If it was me I would make special discount developer pricing (which probably would make for a run on dev registrations, but there is nothing wrong with that).

You are 100% correct that most important is the AR/VR headset done right.
 
Harvey Zoltan said:
You can subsidise the product as much as you like but you still need to give the majority of people a compelling reason to put one of these things on their head. I think it's going to a tough sell for any company.
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Hence the reason that IMO AR is initially the more important of the AR/VR pair. The VR side will remain hokey for years, but a business putting an AR headset on a worker to better perform some pricey process has different needs and will accept different pricing.
 
MacRumors said:


Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has criticized Apple's pricing strategy by claiming that the tech giant typically "charges as much as it can" for hardware, whereas Meta will take a different approach by selling products like its new $1500 AR/VR headset at a "break even" price point, or in some cases even a loss (via Business Insider).

tim-cook-mark-zuckerberg.jpg

In a podcast interview following the launch of Meta's new "Quest Pro" headset, Zuckerberg said it's natural for hardware companies to want to make a profit on product sales, but that Apple seeks to charge customers as much as possible. In contrast, Zuckerberg said Meta will take a different route with its portfolio of hardware products, and claimed his company may make no profit from some of its sales and will instead rely on revenue generated by software and services offered in the metaverse.
This week, Meta announced the Quest Pro, its latest AR/VR headset for the so-called "metaverse." At $1500, the Quest Pro is the high-end successor model to the Meta Quest and boasts a more comfortable design, more advanced display technology, and sensors that can read a user's emotions and facial movements, according to Meta. Apple's AR/VR headset is rumored to be announced in January, and you can learn more about it by checking out our AR/VR roundup.

Article Link: Zuckerberg: Apple 'Charges As Much As It Can' for Hardware, But Meta Is Willing to Sell at a Loss to Grow the Metaverse
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Zuck is SO generous. Is he completely oblivious to the idea that not one person alive on the planet does not think he’s the greediest guy around?
 
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No offense, but I watched the Quest Pro launch and Mark Zuckerberg seemed like a giant doofus.

He cannot simply will/decree stupid things into becoming a commercial success, even if he is a billionaire.

His performance makes you wonder if anyone tells him the truth.
 
Apple makes products so good that people don't mind paying a premium price.

If you have to sell at a loss to get people to buy, then maybe your product just isn't that good.
 
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