Meta and Apple are fierce rivals, and on Wednesday, the Facebook creator upped the ante by announcing new lightweight virtual reality glasses that make Apple’s Vision Pro headset look like bulky old tech.
Mark Zuckerberg showed off Meta’s new glasses, named Meta VR Glasses, at the company’s annual Connect event in Menlo Park, Calif. The glasses weigh 100 grams, the CEO said, making them light enough to compare to a regular pair of glasses. The glasses, which Meta said will ship in spring 2027, are designed for cinematic experiences such as watching movies, spatial computing, and gaming. They will cost $1,299.
“We made the decision to focus a little bit less on metaverse for now; build fewer VR devices and only release them when we have real breakthroughs,” Zuckerberg said Wednesday. “We’ve also heard that a lot of people are less interested in wearing a headset. So, we’ve built a new kind of VR device.”
To show off the glasses, Zuckerberg played a video of creators such as YouTuber Casey Neistat and NBA start Draymond Green reacting to the device. In the demo, Meta showed people wearing the glasses while watching an NBA game and multitasking between applications. The glasses are marketed with a connected battery pack.
The new VR glasses are a clear shot at Apple and its Vision Pro headset, which has failed to take off as a consumer device in part because of its large frame, its weight, and its cost (around $3,700). Apple is also reportedly working on smart glasses, as well as camera-enabled AirPods. Apple recently held its own hardware event, where it unveiled its first foldable phone, named the iPhone Duo, but didn’t have any updates on the Vision Pro.
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Meta has taken the lead in the post-smartphone world in large part because of its lineup of smart glasses, which have become the most popular on the market.
In addition to the new VR glasses, Zuckerberg also ended his presentation by unveiling an entirely new product: a compact, handheld device designed to fit on a keychain that features its Muse AI agent, including a real-time voice mode. Zuckerberg said Meta has built only a few early working units, which it is calling the Muse Charm, and plans to release it in time for the holidays.
The Muse AI agent, and the app it is hosted on, have risen quickly in popularity, hitting No. 1 on Apple’s U.S. App Store in recent days.
“If you’re not wearing glasses, this is going to be by far the fastest way to talk to your Muse and to show it what’s going on around you,” Zuckerberg said.
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The CEO also spent the hour-long presentation showing off new styles of Meta smart glasses, including updates to its flagship Ray-Ban camera-enabled glasses, its Meta Display glasses, which feature a small digital box on the right lens, and its first audio-only glasses, which will ship in Ray-Ban’s Clubmaster and Burbank styles.
“Delivering personal superintelligence is now within reach,” Zuckerberg said. “Soon, everyone is going to have an extremely capable personal agent that understands your goals and can work 24/7 on your behalf.”