In a companywide assembly with staff right this moment, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded to Apple’s announcement of the Imaginative and prescient Professional, in line with The Verge‘s Alex Heath. Zuckerberg mentioned the Imaginative and prescient Professional has no “magical options” that Meta has not considered, and “prices seven instances extra” than its recently-announced Quest 3 headset.

Zuckerberg added that Apple’s announcement “actually showcases the distinction within the values and the imaginative and prescient that our firms convey to this,” noting that Meta’s purpose is to supply merchandise which can be “accessible and inexpensive to everybody.” Imaginative and prescient Professional shall be priced at $3,499, whereas the Quest 3 shall be priced at $499 and the Quest Professional prices $999.

Meta’s purpose with the metaverse is “basically social,” whereas the Imaginative and prescient Professional seems to be extra isolating, in line with Zuckerberg. He admitted that Apple’s strategy “could possibly be the imaginative and prescient of the way forward for computing,” however is “not the one which I would like.”

Zuckerberg’s full feedback, as reported by The Verge:

Apple lastly introduced their headset, so I need to speak about that for a second. I used to be actually curious to see what they had been gonna ship. And clearly I have never seen it but, so I am going to study extra as we get to play with it and see what occurs and the way folks use it.

From what I’ve seen initially, I would say the excellent news is that there isn’t any sort of magical options that they must any of the constraints on legal guidelines and physics that our groups have not already explored and considered. They went with the next decision show, and between that and all of the expertise they put in there to energy it, it prices seven instances extra and now requires a lot power that now you want a battery and a wire hooked up to it to make use of it. They made that design trade-off and it’d make sense for the circumstances that they are going for.

However look, I feel that their announcement actually showcases the distinction within the values and the imaginative and prescient that our firms convey to this in a means that I feel is absolutely vital. We innovate to ensure that our merchandise are as accessible and inexpensive to everybody as attainable, and that could be a core a part of what we do. And we’ve bought tens of hundreds of thousands of Quests.

Extra importantly, our imaginative and prescient for the metaverse and presence is basically social. It is about folks interacting in new methods and feeling nearer in new methods. Our machine can be about being energetic and doing issues. In contrast, each demo that they confirmed was an individual sitting on a sofa by themself. I imply, that could possibly be the imaginative and prescient of the way forward for computing, however like, it isn’t the one which I would like. There’s an actual philosophical distinction when it comes to how we’re approaching this. And seeing what they put on the market and the way they will compete simply made me much more excited and in lots of methods optimistic that what we’re doing issues and goes to succeed. However it may be a enjoyable journey.

Simply days earlier than WWDC, Meta previewed the Quest 3, its next-generation blended actuality headset. Launching later this yr, the headset encompasses a 40% slimmer and extra comfy design, a higher-resolution show, and as much as twice the graphics efficiency because the Quest 2. The headset will begin at $499 with 128GB of storage, and the corporate plans to share extra particulars about it at an occasion on September 27.

Apple mentioned the Imaginative and prescient Professional shall be obtainable within the U.S. in early 2024.