Apple's (AAPL +1.12%) strategy for taking over a tech space is notorious. In this video clip from "The Virtual Opportunities Show" on Motley Fool Live, recorded on May 31, Fool.com contributors Travis Hoium, Rachel Warren, and Demitri Kalogeropoulos explain how it appears that the tech giant could soon be making a big move into AR and VR headsets.
Travis Hoium: I think this is an interesting company in this space specifically because, Oculus has had headsets out for what, six years now? Apple doesn't release half-baked ideas. The idea of a headset plugging into a specific gaming computer with a specific graphics card and very limited content and all the things that Oculus did and had to do to grow up the way that they have, that's not what Apple does.
Apple watches the industry develop, and they want to be the second or third mover. They want to come in and just drop a bomb and go, this is the way you should've been doing it all along. [laughs] We look back on something like the iPhone and you go, of course, that makes a ton of sense.
But they waited and they saw everything developing, and there was a number of reasons they didn't release something like the iPhone earlier. Well, they kind of tried. They had a deal with, I believe it was with Motorola (MSI +0.46%) to do the iTunes phone that didn't do very well. I think what we're seeing here is them waiting.
We've talked about the chips that they have developed for their Max that I think everybody expects at least one of those chips to end up in this headset in some way, shape, or form. It's like they're building these building blocks that will eventually lead us to some sort of headset. We just don't know quite what it looks like. We'll see what we learn next week, but we're starting to get at least kernels coming out.
Rachel Warren: I do think it's a really interesting point you bring up of Apple, unlike a lot of companies. Sometimes you think of, oh, you need to have first-mover advantage, particularly in a highly competitive space in order to win. I think it's interesting the point you raised that Apple has said, well no, I'm not necessarily going to make a new mouse trap, I'm just going to make it better than anybody else. [laughs] I think that's something that they continue to do. I think that's a really interesting approach that they've taken and I like that as an investor.
Demitri Kalogeropoulos: Another part of Apple that makes it a little special in this space, as I always think, is how better platforms and Microsoft (MSFT 0.21%) two of the other bigger players in the space seem to be making as much noise as they can about how they are in the metaverse and how they're developing AR and VR stuff. In part because they want to attract all that great staffing and everything like that.
Apple is special in the fact that I guess probably it doesn't have to do that or it's secretive too in the same way. It's taken a whole different approach. It's like, maybe we're working on it, maybe we're not, we're not going to confirm anything. It's always interesting to see Apple. Apple definitely walks to the beat of its own drum for sure.
