Apple Watch on Your Face: Zuckerberg Says Rumoured Apple Glass AR Tech is Not ‘Compelling’

It isn’t everyday that you have a Big Tech CEO taking a rather well phrased dig at a fellow tech giant. Yesterday, on the sidelines of unveiling Facebook’s new Oculus Quest 2 untethered portable AR headset, company chief Mark Zuckerberg seemingly took a shot at Apple’s purported augmented reality project, which has appeared in leaks as Apple Glass. Talking about his vision of true augmented reality and what the state of AR is today, Zuckerberg compared the existing AR tech to be “like putting an Apple Watch on your face”. The point of contention was whether interfaces akin to Heads-Up Displays (HUDs) that augment a basic set of information in front of your eyes can qualify as a futuristic AR experience for the end-user.

In an interview with The Verge, Zuckerberg said that the question of advancing hardware tech will be “especially difficult”, as the industry looks to transition from the large, obtrusive headset-like virtual reality devices such as the newly unveiled Oculus Quest 2, to the ultimate goal of thin, normal-looking glasses that can double up as fully capable AR devices that not only offer basic information augmented on certain situations, but actually offer seamless connectivity and processing to augment information in real time.