What you need to know
- Mark Zuckerberg was recently on the Information 411 podcast.
- The Facebook CEO talked about the company's VR ambitions and criticized companies like Apple for their approach.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, bashed against Apple in everything but name during a recent podcast interview.
As reported by The Information (via 9to5Mac), in an interview on the Information 411 podcast, Zuckerberg answered questions around AR and VR, and where he thinks Facebook will play a role in that space. He also, when asked about Facebook's aim to build its own experiences from the "ground up" rather than incorporating them into the App Store or Google Play Store, railed against the limitations of the App Store without using Apple by name.
"There's obviously an aspect of this, which is being able to make sure that we design these systems so we can build the software experiences that we want. I've certainly found it a little bit constraining on mobile phones. You have these app stores that are pretty rigid in their rules. Certainly, there are things that I think would create better social experiences that we're just simply not allowed to build. On desktop browsers, we have this whole gaming platform. We basically just weren't allowed to bring that to mobile.We would like to make sure that we can design the next system so it can actually create the kind of social experiences that we would like there to be. "
Zuckerberg also downplayed companies that planned to release headsets over $1000. Apple's VR headset is currently rumored to cost as much as $3000.
"I think our inclination is probably going to be to try to offer these products at as low of a cost as possible in order to be able to get them out to everyone. Unlike some of the other companies in the space that basically charge premium prices as their business model, one of our core principles is we want to serve everyone. I'm very focused not only on how you can create a good VR and AR device, but how do you make it so it's $300 instead of $1,000."
Apple's AR headset is rumored to use pass-through technology, which will use external cameras to display the world around you on the internal screen. Zuckerberg downplayed the validity of this approach as well.
"You're probably not going to want to live in a world of pass-through VR anytime soon because you're not gonna want to give up the vividness of what your eyes can really see in terms of the contrast and brightness of the colors if everything is just slightly duller in VR."
If you're not planning on waiting for Facebook's or Apple's VR headset, check out our list of the Best VR Headsets for iMac in 2021.
Apple and Facebook's relationship has been very strained lately. In addition to launching an attack campaign against Apple new privacy protections, Zuckerberg reportedly told Facebook employees that the company needed to "inflict pain" on Apple after Tim Cook publicly scolded Facebook's data collection tactics.
