Apple Vision Pro is unsociable and expensive... says Meta's Mark Zuckerberg

(Image credit: Apple)

It doesn't seem like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a fan of Apple's ideology for its Vision Pro headset, according to meeting notes from a companywide address.

Speaking to his team at a company-wide meeting, Zuckerberg took a jibe at the Vision Pro's $3500 price tag and external battery pack, "They went with a higher resolution display, and between that and all the technology they put in there to power it, it costs seven times more and now requires so much energy that now you need a battery and a wire attached to it to use it," Zuckerberg continues. "They made that design trade-off, and it might make sense for the cases that they're going for."

He also highlighted the differences in how Meta and Apple see the future of Augmented and Virtual Reality. He said, "We innovate to make sure that our products are as accessible and affordable to everyone as possible, which is a core part of what we do. And we have sold tens of millions of Quests."

This comes after criticism of Apple's decision to price its new Vision Pro headset at an unreachable price for many people during an economic crisis. Zuckerberg's Meta has been the dominating force in the VR headset space for years now, and there's some concern that Apple's vision of the space could take customers away from Meta once Vision Pro and its subsequent generations release.

Sitting on a couch by themselves

Tim Cook told Good Morning America, "It was a design choice from the start. This is not about isolation, this is about connection," when discussing the criticism of how Vision Pro's marketing feels incredibly secluded.

Zuckerberg says, "Our vision for the metaverse and presence is fundamentally social. It’s about people interacting in new ways and feeling closer in new ways. Our device is also about being active and doing things."

He adds, "By contrast, every demo that they showed was a person sitting on a couch by themself. I mean, that could be the vision of the future of computing, but like, it’s not the one that I want."

Whether or not you agree with Zuckerberg's views on his Meta headset and vision for the metaverse, Apple's Vision Pro has divided consumers. We'll need to wait and see if Apple Vision Pro brings the headset market to the mainstream, but for now, "The Eye of Sauron" has its concerns.

John-Anthony Disotto is the How To Editor of iMore, ensuring you can get the most from your Apple products and helping fix things when your technology isn’t behaving itself. Living in Scotland, where he worked for Apple as a technician focused on iOS and iPhone repairs at the Genius Bar, John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade and prides himself in his ability to complete his Apple Watch activity rings. John-Anthony has previously worked in editorial for collectable TCG websites and graduated from The University of Strathclyde where he won the Scottish Student Journalism Award for Website of the Year as Editor-in-Chief of his university paper. He is also an avid film geek, having previously written film reviews and received the Edinburgh International Film Festival Student Critics award in 2019. John-Anthony also loves to tinker with other non-Apple technology and enjoys playing around with game emulation and Linux on his Steam Deck.

In his spare time, John-Anthony can be found watching any sport under the sun from football to darts, taking the term “Lego house” far too literally as he runs out of space to display any more plastic bricks, or chilling on the couch with his French Bulldog, Kermit.