Meta, Snap Aim to Augment AR's Reality

Meta and Snap are about to show off their new AR glasses

Snapchat has been the underdog to Meta in social media. Now, their rivalry is turning to hardware.

The Verge

Something AR this way comes – actually two things, according to Alex Heath:

Next month, two longtime rivals in social media will face off with major demonstrations of what they think will eventually be the next major computing platform: AR glasses.

The first big reveal will come from Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, who, sources tell me, is set to unveil the fifth generation of Spectacles on September 17th at his annual Partner Summit in Los Angeles. The following week, on September 25th. I’ve confirmed that Mark Zuckerberg is slated to debut Meta’s first AR glasses, codenamed Orion, at his Connect conference in Menlo Park.

Interesting just how close these reveals will be, and such things tend not to be an accident. Both are tied to larger events – Snap's Partner Summit and Meta's Connect 2024, respectively – but if Meta was really worried about what Snap is doing here, they may have tried to get their product showcased sooner, one imagines.¹ Instead, they'll aim to upstage them a week later, which is obviously more the Apple playbook (with everyone shifting events around to try to get ahead of whatever Apple is going to announce, most recently, Google with their Pixel event last week).²

Though Meta and Snap have pursued different paths in developing AR glasses, both are grappling with the same challenge: the technology still isn’t ready for mainstream adoption. As a result, neither company intends to sell the glasses they’ll showcase next month, according to insiders. Instead, Snap will repeat its 2021 strategy, distributing this upgraded Spectacles model to select developers and partners. Snap is reportedly producing fewer than 10,000 units, while Meta is manufacturing even fewer of its Orion glasses.

Speaking of Apple, Heath doesn't even bother to mention the elephant in the room here: the Vision Pro. That itself may be telling. After the massively hyped launch, you don't really hear people talking about the device anymore. Occasionally I'll get a question about it, but it's almost always "are you still using it?" Which is... not great for Apple. Especially since the honest answer is, "no, not really." It's just too laborious to use, not particularly comfortable, not appropriate for social settings (like when your family or friends are around), and lacks a steady stream of compelling content. But beyond that, what did you think of the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

But really, I continue to believe that Apple messed up in their timing of launching the device. They probably couldn't have known how much AI would take the world (and Wall Street) by storm, but also, they were probably pretty well position to know that. Yes, it's easy to say in hindsight, but I was pretty skeptical leading up to launch too. Apple should have shipped the first iteration of the Vision Pro just as it sounds like Snap and Meta are with their AR devices – as limited, developer-focused test devices. Seeding an ecosystem. Apple just pushed Vision Pro out there thinking developers would come. They did not.³

Since the first pair of Spectacles came out in 2016, Spiegel has been clear that, like Zuckerberg, he also wants to be a major player in whatever hardware platform comes after phones. “If we’re going to succeed on software with a platform shift, we need a seat at the table and our own hardware,” someone who has been involved with Snap’s hardware efforts recently told me.

Yes, the problem, as Heath points out, is that Snap doesn't have the core business scale that Meta does, which gives them cover for projects like this (not to mention AI). I get the need and desire to focus on what's next, of course, but if I were Snap, I might instead focus on going after Meta's core business with their demographic advantage (though Meta would say they've snuffed that out), while this stuff remains skunk-works.

If nothing else, they clearly don't have Wall Street's confidence at the moment. And while we can all say that doesn't matter, it does when you're a public company looking to tap the advantages of being a public company. Yes, Evan Spiegel still has ultimate control through voting shares, but what's the point of being public right now? Perhaps they should go private again?

All of that is to say,⁴ these new AR glasses better be good!⁵

Meta’s Quest Against Apple

Can ‘Horizon OS’ be the Android to visionOS?

SpyglassM.G. Siegler

Apple’s Vision

Can a stripped-down, less expensive headset save ‘Spatial Computing’?

SpyglassM.G. Siegler

Period?

Here we go again: “I don’t just think that Quest is the better value, I think Quest is the better product, period.” Look, I actually don’t disagree with Mark Zuckerberg’s overall stance here. Meta’s Quest, as it stands right now on February 13, 2024 is a better overall product

SpyglassM.G. Siegler

Oh, the Humanity of Vision Pro

Apple really should have released the Vision Pro as a dev kit

SpyglassM.G. Siegler

¹ To be fair, as Heath notes, the company has not be shy about teasing the upcoming wearable, going so far as to confirm its codename, Orion, from Zuckerberg on down...

² Incidentally, both of these events will be very close to Apple's next iPhone event, which doesn't have a date yet but will almost for sure be either September 10, September 3, or September 17. With the iPhones 16 themselves launching perhaps a week or two later, sucking the press oxygen out of other consumer hardware devices.

³ And sure, you could argue that the $3,500 price tag was a way of limiting the reach of the device, but optically, the way they shipped it, as The Next Big Thing™, just doesn't look good.

⁴ We'll see where Apple goes from here...

⁵ Google too...