Meta Connect Produced Their Keynote in 3D, Why Doesn’t Apple? September 30, 2024

Editor’s Note: All views in this editorial are protected under the First Amendment. We also want to make it clear that we will not be comparing ANY new products shown by Meta against anything Apple has already released or is expected to release.

Several days ago, Meta (owners of Facebook, Instagram and Oculus), hosted a major Meta Connect event. It got a ton of positive press, and rightfully so. New enhancements were announced for popular products such as the Ray Ban Meta sunglasses, new VR products were announced for consumers such as the lower cost Meta Quest 3S headset, and a technical demo of a prototype product called Orion blew a lot of people out of the water. I admit, we were slow on this website to report on it, and I ask to be forgiven. This website prefers to use official sources when highlighting any major gaming news or events, and that was impossible to find immediately after the event concluded. It seemed in this case, Meta intentionally withheld releasing an official copy of their Meta Connect 2024 Keynote on their official YouTube channels for several days. We can only speculate on the reason why Meta chose to cede internet traffic to the channels who rebroadcasted the event, but now that it has been officially posted, there’s a major thing that I wanted to speak about, and that is its production value.

This year’s Meta Connect had an enormous guest list of press and internet influencers in attendance for the show. For those of you who were unable to attend the event in person, the live event was entirely filmed in 3D with meticulous attention to picture quality and detail. This is literally UNHEARD OF for any event, let alone a live one. Gamers who already owned a Meta Quest headset such as the Quest Pro or Quest 3, were able to watch the video in 3D using Meta’s VR application Meta Horizon Worlds. In fact, an entire Virtual Immersive space was set up for this event, filled with VR minigames and unlockable rewards. It was literally the best way to watch this live event, and it was absolutely free to observe for anyone who had the equipment to watch it.

Meanwhile, Apple is currently the most profitable company in the world. It owns its own premium streaming platform, Apple TV+, and has access to some of the most cutting edge immersive camera technology and editing software in the world. They need that advantage, as they currently sell a very expensive immersive headset for 3D productivity, immersive cinema experiences and gaming called the Apple Vision Pro. Over the past few months, Apple has released two major events. The first was from WWDC 2024, where they previewed the new operating system improvements for existing Apple devices after having their team leaders jump out of an airplane. New features for the Vision Pro were announced and previewed, and we were assured these new features would come to all existing owners at no additional charge. The second was a preview of the (then) upcoming iPhone 16 phones, which Apple chose to make immersive (3D) video and audio recordings a big selling point. Neither of these events got much buzz from either the technology press or general consumers, and while I can personally attest to see the iPhone 16 line is currently selling just fine, many disagree with me on how they project Apple’s smartphone sales will be when the year wraps up.

Strangely, while Apple was able to release their presentations in a prerecorded format which allowed for full editing control, retakes, and post-production special effects, they chose to record and stream their recent events in a flat 2D non-immersive presentation. While you could watch these events in Vision Pro’s Apple TV application, most viewers would see no difference in watching it on their Vision Pro than they would if they watched it on an iPad through the YouTube application.

How could Meta, a company that makes all its money in ad revenue, produce a more technologically impressive Keynote than Apple did? Meta clearly knows its priorities are to push VR to the mass market, and by offering this presentation in an immersive format, it is clear to this jaded gamer that whoever is making the upper-level decisions at Meta is intelligent enough to know how to put Meta’s best foot forward. Apple is making it clear in contrast that they will not be pushing boundaries on their presentations by having Vision Pro exclusive content just yet.

Hopefully Apple will reverse course and have a response for Meta soon. When the Vision Pro first released in February, they released a two-minute trailer of immersive 3D content that they promised were a part of longer immersive specials and documentaries they had been filming over the past year. It’s been nearly eight months since then, and we’re still waiting for most of the shows that trailer teased to actually get released. That said, the immersive format that Apple has been releasing their Vision Pro content is without a doubt the best immersive virtual content I have ever seen. The problem is there just isn’t that much of it! Meanwhile, the next Macs are expected to get announced before the end of the year. If Apple wanted to be serious about their investment in the Vision Pro, the least they could do moving forward would be to film all their presentations in immersive 3D so Vision Pro owners could literally get the best seats in the house.