Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg weighed in, saying he might be at greater risk than anyone else on the planet if Apple does to headphones what the iPhone did to smartphones. In a video posted to his Instagram account on Tuesday, Zuckerberg gave his official verdict on the Vision Pro versus his company’s latest Quest 3 headset: “Not only do I think the Quest is a better value, I think the Quest is better. products, full stop.”
When Zuckerberg was filmed in his living room using the Quest 3’s video pass-through system, it underscored the trade-offs Apple has made to turn its most beautiful display into a product that can be worn on your head and has an acceptable form factor. He said that Quest 3 is 120 grams lighter, more comfortable to wear and can be worn for longer. He also said it allows for greater movement because it doesn’t have a wired battery pack and has a wider field of view than the Vision Pro.
He thinks the Quest’s physical hand controllers and hand-tracking input options are better, though he said he’s a fan of eye tracking for certain use cases and teased that it will return to future versions after debuting in the Quest Pro. Meta headset. He said that the Quest has a better library of “immersive” content than Apple, which is technically true for now, although he acknowledged that the Vision Pro is a better entertainment device. In fact, as Zach puts it, the Quest 3 is “seven times cheaper.”
At the end of the video, Zuckerberg thanked his team who have long been making VR headsets — a message that seemed to include We can rest easy, folks. Atmosphere. As I discussed with Zuckerberg recently, Meta does have a huge head start and will be the undisputed leader in headphone sales for some time. You could even make a strong argument, as Zuckerberg did, that the Quest 3 is a better headset than the Vision Pro for most people today.
But what Zuckerberg doesn’t say in the video is that Apple has clear hardware and developer ecosystem advantages, and the latter will take time to accelerate a new product category like this. Mehta is probably relieved now. But this is a game of endurance. The headphone wars have just begun.
