In this article, after a decade of development and billions of dollars, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled one of the company’s most ambitious projects in September: an augmented reality prototype named Orion. A week prior, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel introduced its AR-capable, 5th-generation Spectacles at the annual Snap Partner Summit. Both companies envision significant potential for the technology, aiming for AR glasses to surpass smartphones as the next generation of computing.
Chris Cox, Meta’s chief product officer, expressed in an exclusive interview with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin, “This is a major leap forward for technology. It’s a big step forward for our goal to help define the next generation of computing.”
The pursuit of augmented and mixed reality has been a long-standing endeavor for tech giants. Apple recently launched its Vision Pro virtual reality headset for $3,500. Google was an early player in 2013 with Google Glass, an initial AR device that faced challenges and was eventually discontinued. Microsoft has been investing in AR technology for over a decade, releasing its HoloLens headset for enterprise in 2016, which was later discontinued in October due to limited success.
Tuong Nguyen, Gartner director analyst, commented, “We’re in our adolescence. We see a lot of potential, but we haven’t quite reached that potential yet.”
Although Snap and Meta have introduced AR prototypes, consumer sales are still years away due to the high production costs of the technology. Meta intends to utilize Orion as a developer device for its employees initially.
Zuckerberg mentioned at the Meta Connect conference in September, “We’re going to use it mostly internally to build out the software we need to. We’re also going to work with a handful of partners externally to ensure we get a diversity of content.”
Snap also plans to expand its ecosystem by offering AR glasses to developers who commit to a $99 monthly rental fee for a year for the Spectacles.
Spiegel stated to Boorstin, “We’ve really tried to lower the barrier to folks getting started with this new technology. We’re at a unique moment where both consumers and developers are really ready for something new.”
To explore the future of this cutting-edge tech, watch the video as CNBC’s Julia Boorstin tests Meta and Snap’s augmented reality glasses.
