Mark Zuckerberg predicts the end of the iPhone and gives a date

Mark Zuckerberg launched a prediction that left more than one speechless at the Meta Connect 2024 conference According to the social media mogul, the days of the iPhone and other smartphones are numbered. His successor? Augmented reality glasses. Right now, the iPhone 16 Pro is my most used device on a daily basis. I had the opportunity to test the Apple Vision Pro for about two weeks. Did I have this feeling of wanting to put the iPhone aside?

Project Meta and Apple Vision Pro are different, but they also have many similarities. After the presentation of the Orion project we are getting closer and closer to “normal and ordinary” glasses who can run applications, why limit ourselves to lowering our heads and looking only at the six inches of our iPhone? That’s what Mark thinks, although the reality is a little more complicated.

In ten years there will be people who don’t use the iPhone

The most interesting thing about this prediction is the reasoning behind it. Mark Zuckerberg says augmented reality glasses will offer more immersive and fluid experience than current smartphones. And that makes sense. Imagine being able to display multiple work screens in front of you while having coffee so comfortably at home.

I’ve already had this experience with Apple Vision Pro and it’s wonderful. As a result, you can configure your environment with several windows and leave them, in fact, in this room. When you leave, they stay there. And when you come back, you still have it. As much as I can work with a word processor in front of me, and if I turn around, have the messages application and the X timeline. Therefore, even though it sounds like science fiction, Mark Zuckerberg is right. What may have failed was the temporal prediction.

Phones are small, distracting and prevent face-to-face interactions. Glasses could be integrated more organically into our daily lives. In 10 years, many people will no longer carry their phones with them. They will use their glasses for everything.

This seems ambitious and even somewhat possible. The reality is that the world is very big and complex. The iPhone is 17 years old and you could say that today everyone has a smartphone. And that includes developing countries where the smartphones their population can afford are reasonably priced, around 100 dollars.

However, with all the technology behind glasses like Orion or Vision Pro, Achieving a price reduction as extreme as that of smartphones will be more difficult. In ten or twenty years, will everyone be able to get one? Probably in countries like the United States, yes, but like I said. There is a world beyond.

Orion for Meta and Vision Pro for Apple

It’s no coincidence that Zuckerberg just made these predictions. Meta has secretly developed a prototype augmented reality glasses called Orion. Even if it is not yet ready to be sold, it is already possible to see the path it intends to follow.. Mark himself says it could revolutionize the way we work, play and communicate. In addition, it must be said that, although it is a prototype, it is getting closer and closer to the concept of “smart glasses”.

We can’t talk about the future of augmented reality without talking about the Apple Vision Pro. Apple’s concept is somewhat different, since for them it is a “space computer”we all know they will eventually become something much lighter and something we can wear every day, like the Meta Orion.

Apple Vision Pro offers an experience just as immersive as the Orion, but with the “handicap” of the current design: something thicker and which creates this technology/person barrier. So now, These days, the Apple Vision Pro looks more like a Macwith that feeling of “I’m going to sit down and work.” Of course, with the advantage of being able to do it in a different environment, with several windows as we mentioned previously. Not to mention immersive movies and the rest of the benefits of Vision Pro.

More than a disappearance, there will be a displacement

Even though Mark Zuckerberg recognizes the historical importance of the iPhone, he believes that they have reached their ceiling in terms of innovation. According to him, augmented reality glasses represent the next big technological leap. It is true that smartphones have evolved little in recent years. Yes, we have better cameras and more powerful processors, but the basic concept remains the same. Augmented reality glasses (or Apple’s spatial computer) open up a world of possibilities that we are still beginning to explore.

I wear glasses every day and look at my iPhone several times a day. I go to him, I take him with my hands… What happens if in the future I make a similar gesture, but the home screen appears in front of me? I already experienced the same thing with Apple Vision Pro. The difference is comfort and that’s something that will change in a few years.

However Talking about total disappearance is very risky. Computers haven’t even died out and we’ve been using them for decades. Because? Because they are always useful. Even with the arrival of the iPad, Macs or PCs continue to have sales. They have not disappeared and will not disappear. But yes, there are people who don’t use it as much anymore or who don’t even have one.

We call this displacement. I use the Mac for work. My mother stopped using it years ago. and now he lives so happily with the iPad. My cousins ​​who are in high school also use the iPad. What could happen with Apple’s Meta or Vision Pro glasses will be something very similar. There will be people who no longer want to use the iPhone, others who will combine both uses and others who do not see the use of it. What is clear is that the future lies in looking (literally) forward and enjoying the union of a real and digital environment.

In Applesfera | Differences between augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality and what type of viewer is the Apple Vision Pro

In Applesfera | Echoes of the future: from the iPod to the international expansion of Apple Vision Pro