Update: If you’d rather listen to a podcast discussing this post, try this!
Sometimes the future arrives when you least expect it. This week I spent an hour watching the Meta Connect keynote presentation by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It was amazing. The joy of a live technology keynote – flaws and all – was brought to life once again!
Apple’s iPhone Event
Earlier this month, Apple had its annual iPhone reveal event. Beautifully videoed at locations around San Francisco and Apple Park in Cupertino, the presenters told their stories about the various features of the new iPhones. But even though the presentations were truly beautiful, the whole session was boring. Too long and too “slick”.
Meta’s Connect Keynote
Zuckerberg’s presentation, in contrast, was live in front of an audience – and it had the spontaneity we all remember from those earlier Apple keynotes that Steve Jobs pioneered and other Apple execs continued doing before the pandemic forced the elimination of a live audience and the switch to formal video productions instead. The first demo that Zuck featured began nicely but then quickly failed – the demo gods are still alive and lurking in the background. But the demo fail wasn’t a disaster – it brought humor to the event. We’ve all been there – had something go off the rails when we least expect it. Seeing it happen live was in its own way delightful.
Orion vs Vision Pro
Zuckerberg spoke of several things during his keynote but the one that struck me the most was his introduction of the Orion holographic smart glasses. The obvious contrast to Orion is the Apple Vision Pro, a product which certainly failed to interest me and which seems to have had the same effect on many others. Unfortunately, the perception of the Vision Pro being a market failure hasn’t been helped by Apple’s curious failure to show real commitment to the product.
The Vision Pro won high marks from most reviewers for being an elegant and sophisticated piece of technology. And that elegance is reflected in its price – over $3,500. Because of the design decisions that Apple made, a lot of the cost of the Vision Pro seems rooted in the very high end cameras and screens to bring the real world inside the headset where it’s then augmented with other computer generated screens creating a mixed reality experience.
Meta’s Orion, on the other hand, doesn’t try to do that. Instead the metaphor is one of real glasses where the real world is simply directly visible without the need for the Vision Pro’s high end cameras and displays. As one reviewer commented, the real world is displayed in “infinite resolution” unlike in headsets like that Vision Pro that capture the real world with cameras and projects those images instead. Orion has “good enough pass through”!
In one of his discussions of his impressions of Orion, Stratechery’s Ben Thompson commented about how you could be “sneakily anti-social” using Orion because you could interact with other humans just like you would wearing a pair of glasses. You could be looking at your Instagram feed without anyone else realizing you’re doing so as you maintain eye contact with them as well.
Audio and Visual Transparency
This reminded me of one of the hidden benefits I learned about when I was fitted with hearing aids several years ago. Fortunately for me, my need for hearing aids coincided with the technology in hearing aids maturing to the point where they have become very small, rechargeable with all day battery life, and – importantly and surprisingly – perfect for listening to streaming content from my iPhone. When I’m doing so, I still hear the real world around me and can have a conversation with another person even while there’s music or a podcast playing in my ears. Orion seems visually very similar to my audio experience with my hearing aids!
Concept Cars
Ben Thompson pointed out that Orion is really just a “concept car” at the moment whereas Apple’s Vision Pro is a real product that’s been shipping in volume for over a year. Direct comparisons really aren’t appropriate – but the fundamental design differences between the two are fun to think about and cause me to wonder about bigger implications for the future of both products.
Back to the Future
There’s so much happening in high tech right now that it’s an amazing time to be alive. When you overlay AI on top of these audio and visual capabilities, things get even more interesting – and exciting. Zuckerberg’s keynote brought back memories for me of those years of Steve Jobs proudly showing off Apple’s latest and greatest innovations. It’s pretty clear to me that the founder-led aspect does shine through at times like these. As does the joy of watching a live performance!