Inside Meta's Struggles to Gain an Edge on Apple in AR Race - The Information

Before Meta Platforms released its Ray-Ban camera-equipped glasses past September, the squad spent months trying to get them to enactment with Apple’s iPhone. Meta wanted photos taken connected the glasses to automatically download to users’ phones without requiring them to unfastened Meta’s app. But due to the fact that of however Apple’s bundle operates, the squad couldn’t get the automatic download to enactment erstwhile the telephone was inactive. At the past minute, they had to alteration course, starring to a chaotic scramble up of the product’s launch.

The occurrence demonstrates the situation for Meta arsenic it vies to pb the burgeoning marketplace for augmented world and virtual reality. While Meta already sells VR headsets, AR glasses committedness to beryllium a bigger marketplace due to the fact that they’re lighter value and could beryllium worn for overmuch longer. But AR glasses are truthful technically analyzable that they’re expected to request to brace with different device, specified arsenic a phone, to run astatine afloat capacity—at slightest until the exertion advances.

And Meta, dissimilar Apple, doesn’t marque tons of antithetic hardware devices. If Meta were to trust connected an Apple-made instrumentality arsenic an accessory for a aboriginal AR product, it could tally into problems, arsenic the Ray-Bans occurrence shows. For Apple, meanwhile, its ecosystem of devices could springiness it a large vantage implicit Meta successful the AR market.