Mark Zuckerberg defends $1,500 price tag for Meta's VR headset

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has recently defended his decision to price the Meta Quest Pro at just $1,500.

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Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO and Facebook founder

The Meta CEO and Facebook founder recently appeared on a podcast with Stratechery's Ben Thompson, where he sat down to discuss various topics such as Meta's upcoming projects and how he believes the metaverse will be the next big thing that people adopt. When asked about the pricing of Meta's products, in particular, the Meta Quest Pro, Zuckerberg took the opportunity to subtly throw shade at Apple through a comparison between his company's pricing and Apple's.

Zuckerberg went on to say that companies typically build hardware and attempt to make a profit off the initial sale of that hardware, but in Apple's case, according to Zuckerberg, "you charge as much as you can for it". As you might've already expected, Zuckerberg explains that Meta is taking a different approach to hardware sales by only trying to "break even".

"I do think that having someone come into the space and basically say, "We're going to build the best hardware in the space and we're going to basically sell it at a break-even point and in some cases," said Zuckerberg.

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$1,500 Meta Quest Pro virtual reality headset

"It's typically people build hardware and they try to make a profit off of it, where if you're Apple, you build hardware and you charge as much as you can for it," Zuckerberg said.

Notably, the Meta Quest Pro is priced at $1,500, a heft price point for a piece of hardware that isn't generally being adopted by the masses. Additionally, Zuckerberg said that Meta plan on releasing the Meta Quest 3, which will be at a much lower price point, somewhere between $300 and $500.

Furthermore, Zuckerberg explains that Meta's goal is to have as many people in the metaverse as possible and that he believes the aforementioned business strategy, including the price points, is aligned with the company's mission of connecting people to create a social experience.

Admittedly, Zuckerberg says that most of the money will be made from software purchases and services the company will provide.

This isn't the first time Zuckerberg has subtly thrown some shade at Apple, as the Facebook founder recently stated that he's in a "deep, philosophical competition" with Apple since he pivoted his entire company toward the metaverse. Additionally, Apple hasn't been quiet about Zuckerberg's comments either, with Apple CEO Tim Cook saying in an interview with a Dutch publication that he believes the average person can't explain what the metaverse is.

• Read more: Apple CEO casually throws shade at Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse

Zuckerberg's decision to go headfirst into the metaverse has resulted in the Facebook founder losing $71 billion through 2022, a decision that has resulted in Meta announcing coming layoffs and performance hikes for employees.

• Read more: Mark Zuckerberg has lost $71 billion this year over his big decision
• Read more: Meta plans to cut expenses with a plot to lay off staff