Nothing that Facebook has ever done gives the slightest indication that they're capable of creating anything like the Vision Pro.
Just for starters, where do they get a processor close enough to the M2's performance per watt? Where do they get an operating system to drive it? Who creates a chip like the R1 that handles the video from multiple cameras and gets it displayed in 12 milliseconds?
So much of the technology had to be created from scratch, based on Apple stating they filed over 5,000 patents related to the Vision Pro.
The list of companies that could have pulled this off if they wanted to and had the resources to invest is pretty short--there's no way Facebook is on it.
First of all, Qualcomm's SoCs, while slower, can and will approach M2's performance in about a year or two - especially if they can get Nuvia's designs out the door.
Second, we don't know about the R1 and how impressive it is. But I doubt it's some kind of magical chip that only Apple can make.
Third, the patents won't really do that much because many tech companies have similar/overlapping patents and Apple and Meta won't go to war over patents. The only winner there would be lawyers.
Fourth, I'm going to bet that it won't be Meta who will successfully copy Vision Pro. It'll be one or more of the Chinese companies. Some of them have already created some impressive true AR glasses - not headsets.
The M2 is using TSMC's 5nm process; we know the M3 is already in the works using 3nm, which means less power and more performance than the M2. Even if Qualcomm succeeds and is able to create a processor as fast and power efficient as the M2 is now, it won't be as fast or as power efficient as the M3.
> Second, we don't know about the R1 and how impressive it is. But I doubt it's some kind of magical chip that only Apple can make.
Nobody said anything about it being magic or that only Apple can create such a chip. But the list is short…
The R1 handles the processing of the video from the Vision Pro's 12 cameras and 5 sensors. Two of the cameras transmit more than a billion pixels per second to the display which has a refresh rate of 90Hz, with a peak at 96Hz. The R1 is able to stream images to the display within 12 milliseconds [1].
> Third, the patents won't really do that much because many tech companies have similar/overlapping patents and Apple and Meta won't go to war over patents.
Not sure if you've been paying attention but Apple is constantly in patent disputes with other companies. There's no way after investing an estimated $15 billion in R&D costs would Apple allow Meta or anyone else infringe on their Vision Pro patents.
> Fourth, I'm going to bet that it won't be Meta who will successfully copy Vision Pro. It'll be one or more of the Chinese companies.
I'm sure there will be plenty of bootleg Apple Vision Pro headsets for sale in Asia fairly soon… they will look like the Vision Pro but they won't function like the Vision Pro. And they certainly won't have the operating system or the ecosystem that Apple has.
[1]: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/06/07/apple-vision-hardware/
