In this week's newsletter from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman he notes that "Apple is facing a very different challenge with its Vision Pro headset. It wants to turn the product into a line of devices — with different features and price points. But it’s not starting from a rock-solid foundation. If Apple ultimately becomes successful in headsets, the products will probably look and feel nothing like the Vision Pro of today.

While the Vision Pro is an amazing piece of technology, the headset is really more of a technology showcase than a genuine consumer product. There’s little reason for someone to buy a Vision Pro instead of a computer. And then there’s the price. The Vision Pro is $3,500 putting it out of reach for most people.

This past week, Meta Platforms Inc. unveiled a flurry of new technologies in this space — and underscored the idea that Apple seems to be on the wrong track.

At Meta’s Connect conference, the company introduced the latest version of its Ray-Ban smart glasses. They're not an engineering marvel and don’t attempt to be a true augmented reality device. But they’ve caught on with consumers thanks to a combination of slick design, useful features and effective marketing — areas where Apple typically excels. Quite frankly, Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses should have been an Apple product and would have fit in perfectly with its wearable lineup.

In the realm of mixed reality, Meta landed another blow: Its new Quest 3S headset starts at just $299. At that price point, Meta has a better hope of turning mixed reality into a mainstream category than Apple does. You’re going to see a lot of Quest 3S units get sold as gifts or bought by casual consumers who want a more immersive experience for movies or games. The Apple Vision Pro is now more than 10 times the price of the entry-level Quest offering, and it’s certainly not 10 times better.

But Meta’s masterstroke was the demonstration of its Orion AR glasses prototype. This device isn’t yet ready for consumers, but it still might be the closest thing we’ve seen to a pair of practical AR spectacles. Orion offers a field of view with an impressive 70-degree range (not too far off from the Vision Pro) and relies on an elegant form of eye and hand control. The idea is to ultimately replace your smartphone with something you can comfortably wear on your face all day.

The Orion glasses are just a prototype, and I don’t expect them to turn into a consumer product for three to five years. Based on all available evidence, the company is further along with AR glasses than Apple is in its labs."

Of course Gurman discounts the wide range of detailed patents filed by Apple's engineering team. Apple's engineers could easily present half-baked concepts to the public but have chosen not to pursue that form of marketing. Xiaomi is another company that loves to showoff protypes to look innovative. We'e still waiting for this prototypes to come to market.

The newsletter adds that "Apple seems aware that it needs to rethink its approach to headsets, but there isn’t consensus on how to do that, I’m told. As of now, the company’s Vision Products Group is evaluating a few different options, including: 

• The status quo route: This would involve keeping the Vision Pro more or less the same but focusing on a less expensive version. Apple could bring down the cost with cheaper materials, lesser internal technologies and lower-quality displays. The company would also follow up with a second-generation version of the original, higher-end Vision Pro that has a new chip and Apple Intelligence. 
• The smart display route: In this scenario, Apple would remove the on-board computer and external battery from the Vision Pro and shift many of the internal functions over to the iPhone. This would make the iPhone more valuable, reduce the weight and heat of the headset, and — most importantly — eliminate several hundred dollars' worth of components to bring down the price.
• The smart glasses route: This would mean developing a product that’s closer to Meta’s hit collaboration with Ray-Ban — smart glasses without AR. Apple could use its expertise in chips and audio, as well as its growing collection of AI tools, to make a compelling device. This would essentially be a me-too product, but also something akin to an AirPods on steroids — and Apple fans would probably eat it up.
• The holy grail route: The ultimate goal is standalone augmented reality spectacles that come with high-performing lenses, a battery system, on-board computer, cameras, eye tracking and other components built-in— all while still being the size and weight of normal glasses. This has long been Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook’s dream, but Apple previously paused development of such a product because it was just too big a challenge."

I was rather stunned at how a "prototype" that's 5-10 years out received so much praise.

To rub it in, CNBC posted a segment of "Power Lunch" on YouTube Friday titled "Innovators vs Operators" – With Meta being the innovator and Apple being the Operator. "  Even long standing supporter of Apple, Gene Munster, was siding with Meta to a certain degree. While Munster did attempt to point out Apple's car project was innovative – it was a bad example considering that it's become Apple's largest failure to date.  

Gurman's Newsletter further stated that "Apple has struggled to move beyond its core strengths in recent years. It lacks a coherent smart home strategy, its car project was a failure, and the company arrived late — with unimpressive results — to the AI party.

HomeOS?

Apple’s next operating system could be homeOS and run on two new smart display products. Apple is taking another crack at the smart home market — an area where it’s had mixed results so far. The most significant product in development is a tabletop device that combines a robotic limb with a large, iPad-like display." For more on this, sign up to Gurman's Power On Newsletter.