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Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg jumped on Apple Vision Pro, a decision he may regret someday. Mr. Nishimura—Bloomberg, Getty Images
Arrogance is said to come before the fall, and the swagger with which Mark Zuckerberg dunked on Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro this week is giving critics a serious sense of deja vu.
In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Meta’s founder dismissed the premium mixed reality headset as inferior to his company’s Quest 3 mixed reality headset in both price and performance, calling the latter a “better product, It was called “period”.
But Zack’s bravado has drawn comparisons to the overly hasty obituary for the iPhone written by rival Steve Ballmer when the revolutionary device first launched nearly 17 years ago. , it’s not even a compliment.
“There is no chance that the iPhone will gain significant market share,” the former Microsoft CEO famously predicted in 2007. This quote has since become very old.
Like Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Ballmer focused primarily on the price of mobile phones, ignoring the potential value they could provide to consumers through a thriving digital app economy.
“$500? Fully subsidized with your plan? I said it’s the most expensive cell phone in the world!” Ballmer said in a separate interview. “It also doesn’t have a keyboard, so it’s not appealing to business customers, so it’s not a very good e-mail machine.”
“Steve Ballmer iPhone Video” is 16 years old. The entire two-minute clip is worth watching. In fact, I think things got worse as the video progressed. Ballmer hinted that the Motorola Q could do everything he could do on an iPhone for just $99. Sound familiar?
pic.twitter.com/Rf2c7SmjA2— Neil Cybart (@neilcybart) February 14, 2024
In Zuckerberg’s recent criticism of Apple’s headsets, the Meta founder similarly criticized everything from the Vision Pro’s design to comfort to practicality to price, saying it costs seven times more than his own Quest 3. I smashed it away.
“Is Zuckerberg leading Steve Ballmer by trying to diss Apple?” Glenn Kacher, founder and chief investment officer of Palo Alto-based asset management firm Light Street Capital. asked.
Is Quest similar to Nokia or Blackberry?
Ballmer ultimately regretted his lack of foresight, blaming it on deep cultural hostility within the company to expanding into hardware.
It’s like watching a Nokia fan in 2007 say the iPhone isn’t that advanced because Symbian can do the same thing.
He could have just said nothing, taken what’s good about visionOS, added eye tracking and become king. Now he has his own Ballmer iPhone video. Amazing blunder https://t.co/Z4Ac4sR0Pl
— Tina Debove Nigroᯅ (@tina__nigro) February 14, 2024
A former Microsoft boss said senior management thinking at the time was largely rooted in an easily delineated business model that separated chip, system and software makers from personal computers. The company did not anticipate the shift to end-to-end vertical integration that Apple popularized in the mobile space.
However, the comparison to Ballmer is not entirely accurate. The Microsoft boss said his biggest mistake was limiting his focus to Windows Mobile instead of getting into the handset business, a true iPhone competitor, sooner, but Zuckerberg’s problem is exactly that. It’s the opposite. He already has the hardware, it’s just not widespread.
A closer analogy is that Meta’s Quest could be the Nokia or Blackberry of mixed reality headsets. This is a mass-market device that cannot keep up with innovations in the tech industry and lacks enough engaging content and useful applications.
It wasn’t until the introduction of Apple Vision Pro this month that the technology suddenly gained traction in broader pop culture, in a blow to the Quest 3, which was released just four months ago.
Zuckerberg received some kind of psychological support However, in response to his Ballmer-esque video.
“He’s one of the most impressive CEOs.” I have written Kaushik Subramanian is a partner at early stage investor EQT Ventures and previously worked for the Meta founders. “Don’t bet on Zack!”
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