Investing

The Day META's Glasses Matter for Investors, the Earth Stops Spinning

Austin Smith

Published: October 15, 2024 8:30 am

Key Points:

• Restricted mainstream attract for Apple and Meta VR headsets.
• Meta’s Quest 3 outmatch Apple’s Vision Pro on cost.
• VR tech stays niche, mostly attractive to gamers.
• Answer your biggest retirement questions today!

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Now, I’m going to talk to you all about something I don’t understand.

The Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Meta (NASDAQ: META) make virtual reality headsets.

Now, I’ve seen on television and sitcoms, I’ve seen people wearing them.

But here’s the thing.

A, I don’t get it.

Maybe it’s great for people who are aging.

B, I don’t think there’s enough there.

It’s not going to affect their earnings.

Well, it’s an interesting story.

Because, you know, initially people were like, wow, this is going to be a game changer because, you know, it’s going to be, it won’t be a one-dimensional or two-dimensional play.

Everything’s going to be literally in three D and you’re going to be immersed right in the subject of it.

You know, in, in, in the reality of it.

The big thing here is, and trust me, I am not a big gamer by any means.

But the Meta VR Quest 3 headset costs four hundred and ninety-nine dollars.

Okay.

And the Apple Vision Pro costs thirty-four hundred ninety-nine.

I’m no expert in this field, but apparently the Meta product just absolutely blows it away at, you know, one-fifth or one-sixth of the price.

And this is going to be interesting because, again, they’ve gotten smaller.

You know, in how they go around your eyes, but it’s still, it’s very uncomfortable.

And, you know, until they get away to frame it or, you know, put it in a contact lens or something like that.

So let me understand, except for younger people, it’s going to be that wide.

Let me understand this.

Apple has one of these things and it basically costs three times as much as an iPhone.

Oh yeah, right.

So you’ve got to be out, you basically have to be out of your mind.

I mean, look, I get it.

The gamer has nothing else to spend his money on, you know, was probably all right.

Right, so you’re saying that there’s this tranche of consumers someplace.

I’m sure it’s true.

Who are basically shut-ins.

They sit in their houses.

They’re probably hoarders.

And they buy these headsets and they monkey around with them at home.

But I have to tell you something.

I don’t understand how this is a big market.

I understand that some nutty gamer would use one.

But how does this add to the – it’s on TV, I’m sure.

Investors look at them.

But this is not going to be a big – this isn’t going to push it.

Yeah, it’s not like the true gamer who’s in to play, you know, one of the top games.

And, you know, where they can play against each other.

And that’s, what’s very big.

You know, my son plays one where they’re going to be five hundred other people playing it at the same time.

And, you know, I think from that standpoint, you’re correct.

Because often the VR thing is for, you know, playing golf or playing baseball or something or playing tennis, something where you’re involved in a game.

With a VR opponent.

But yeah, I can’t see that this is going to be huge.

And they’ve already abandoned Apple glasses or whatever they were in the past.

They were supposed to be kind of normal glasses that would help you with different items.

And the technology has been extremely slow.

But I think the fact that the gaming community thinks the five hundred dollar one is superior to the Apple product, I find that really interesting.

All right, so I’m going to give you my bottom line on this.

I can understand that shut-ins will use them.

But the day that this affects the revenues at either company is basically the day the earth stops spinning on its axis.

No, and I think they all thought it would be bigger.

And it’s probably a technology that maybe twenty years from now is significantly improved.

But twenty years from now, I won’t be around to talk about it likely.

They’ll stuff artificial intelligence in it and suddenly it’ll be a great product.

Yeah, that’s what you do.