Meta CTO explains why it was important for Mark Zuckerberg to show off $10,000 smart glasses you can’t buy

But Bosworth said the company still wanted to showcase its vision of where things are going — and the tangible results after a decade of investing in AR.

“The first reason we’re showing it is as a proof point for people,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, invest with us, believe in us, if you’re a technologist, come work with us, this is the thing.'”

The second target audience was the developers. The CTO said the goal was to “ignite” enthusiasm for those investing in making apps for Meta’s platform.

“If you’re investing in our social platform, you’re going to get that dividend not just in the Quest ecosystem, but eventually also in the AR ecosystem,” he said, referencing the company’s Quest mixed-reality headsets.

And Zuckerberg has long been a staunch believer in augmented reality being tech’s next big thing after the iPhone. The Facebook founder told The Verge that Orion is “the quintessential vision” of AR as the “next major multibillion-person computing platform.”

Meta, then called Facebook, missed out on the latest platform shift from PC to smartphones, with Apple and Google dominating the hardware and software. When Meta ships out a new version of Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp, it has to play by Google and Apple’s app store rules.

This time around, Zuckerberg is hoping to come out ahead with Meta’s software and hardware ecosystem.

“And then all these other things are going to get built out around it,” he told The Verge.

Both Zuckerberg and Bosworth are facing fierce competition, especially from Apple.

In 2020, Apple CEO Tim Cook once said that he viewed AR as “the next big thing” and that it would “pervade our entire lives.” The company released its own wearable spatial computer with the Apple Vision Pro in February, angling for the high-end market with a $3499 price tag. Heavy and bulky, the Vision Pro is currently up against Meta’s lower-priced Quest lineup, which now starts at $299.

But as Apple eyes cheaper versions and lighter form factors more akin to glasses, and Meta works to lower the price to manufacture Orion, the stage is set for them to battle for control of the next platform shift.

Mark Zuckerberg knows it. He said earlier this month that he sees Apple as Meta’s “primary competitor” over the next decade.

With Orion existing, even as an absurdly expensive almost-developer kit, Meta feels like it’s finally found a potential successor to the smartphone.

“It could do it, that’s exactly how I feel,” Bosworth told Thompson.