MARK Zuckerberg has hailed his Quest VR goggles as being equivalent to the iPhone – and says it will eventually replace all smartphones.
The billionaire Meta CEO has a long-term plan to overthrow the smartphone industry and replace it with virtual reality (VR) glasses.
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Now, it seems this reality is just a few years away, the CEO explained at this year’s South by Southwest Festival in Texas.
Zuckerberg cited aesthetics and size as two of the biggest challenges in developing a VR device that looks like glasses.
“In order for VR to take off it’s going to have to look good,” the billionaire said.
“It’s one of the most interesting challenges of the next decade. Miniaturizing things is much harder.”
In the meantime, Meta will roll out newer models of the Quest headset, which is expected to feature eye and facial tracking, high-resolution color passthrough, and pancake lenses to help make the gadget more compact.
The Facebook Co-Founder compared the headsets to the first iPhone in terms of impact in VR, Business Insider reported.
“You’ll get some experiences, some things like what we did with Ray-Ban where we cram as much tech as possible into a normal-looking pair of glasses,” Zuckerberg stated.
Facebook’s Ray-Ban smart glasses can complete tasks like taking photos, controlling music, utilizing a voice assistant and taking calls.
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The tech company has noted in the past that while the smart sunglasses are not a true AR device, they were a “very important first step towards that vision”.
Zuckerberg has long been vocal about his vision of VR as the next major computing and communication platform after phones.
“You have this, like, incredibly powerful computer in your pocket, but it’s not the end of the line,” Zuckerberg has said in the past.
He believes that while people will still carry their mobile devices in their pockets, in the future we will also have VR glasses on us at all times.
VR glasses, the Facebook Co-Founder said, will “help us out throughout the day and give us the ability to share our experiences with those we love in completely immersive and new ways that aren’t possible today”.
The race for developing immersive VR and AR technology has been intensifying between tech companies such as Meta and Apple, which are each hoping to be the first to dominate the market.
Regarding the next-gen platforms, Zuckerberg has said: “The essence of virtual and augmented reality is that you need to have a technology that delivers this feeling of presence, the sense that you’re actually right there with another person and all the different sensations that come with that normally.”
