Meta continues its ambitions for professional use and aims to distinguish itself from its competitor. The global player has been the market leader in the field of digital glasses for several years, but that could soon change, as Apple also wants to enter this market.

Starting this Friday, the smartphone manufacturer will sell its own glasses, the Vision Pro, in the USA, thus challenging Meta.

Although Meta has ideal prerequisites to enter the business world successfully, the current Quest 3 reveals significant weaknesses. The glasses, which have only been on the market since the end of December, were able to impress during their first trial run in late September and made CEO Mark Zuckerberg's vision of virtual workspaces appear realistic.

However, a longer testing phase shows that the glasses are considerably less suitable as a work tool than expected.

Many companies have already tried to bridge the gap between virtuality and reality, such as Microsoft, which launched the Hololens 2 five years ago.

This enabled the transfer of additional information into the field of view, thereby creating an augmented perception (AR). However, the Hololens was never able to establish itself and is now hopelessly outdated.

Other AR glasses also offered a perfect representation of the environment, but the displayed information was often not sharp enough and therefore not optimally usable.

In contrast to these glasses, Meta relies on a new system with the Quest 3: Instead of enabling a clear view of the real environment, two high-resolution screens are built in, which depict reality through cameras on the outside.

This technology allows the glasses to display both the environment and virtual information perfectly. Additionally, Meta has formed a close partnership with Microsoft, which means popular Office applications like Word or Teams can also be used with the Meta glasses in the future.

The strength of the glasses becomes immediately apparent during a trial run in the office: the surroundings are visible and both the keyboard and mouse can be operated without any problems. Simple movements are also detected by the glasses. In contrast to other VR glasses, the Quest 3 was able to convince here, as the representation of the environment is significantly more precise and sharper.

The perfect workplace that Zuckerberg speaks of in his vision seems to be within reach - whether in the office, in a hotel, or while traveling.

However, it quickly becomes clear that Meta's current software applications still have some problems, especially in connection to the computer. The required software is still in beta mode and is therefore prone to errors, leading to unreliable connections.

The entire work environment is also not yet mature and urgently needs improvement. These difficulties caused many problems during the test and therefore represent a significant setback for Meta.

Apple to enter the market of smart glasses from February 2, directly competing with Meta. The Vision Pro will initially be only available in the USA, but availability in Germany is planned.

Unlike Meta, Apple does not sell the glasses as a work tool, however it will only be a matter of time until developers provide corresponding applications.

With its nearly 1.8 million apps in the App Store, Apple has a clear advantage over Meta, whose developer community is significantly smaller. Therefore, Meta fails due to the fact that they cannot develop the necessary software themselves.

Although Meta has made great strides in hardware and the Quest 3 is considered to be the best VR headset for the mass market, the low price will not be enough to reach business customers. A reliable and mature software is essential in this regard.

The launch of Apple's Vision Pro represents a major challenge for Meta, which they urgently need to overcome in order to realize their ambitions in the field of digital workplaces.