Meta's Orion, OpenAI, & Jony Ive plan to kill smartphones!
As AI impacts all corners of the devices market, what device will drive the AI revolution into every home and make it meaningful?
Two things you’ll get from TWIP today…
Meta's has launched a sleek new mixed reality smartglasses (Orion) and OpenAI is partnering with Jony Ive to launch a new AI device. What does this all mean?
Attend our Event on Opportunities in Digital Healthcare for Founders - network & learn from India’s top health-tech leaders!
Meta's Orion, OpenAI, & Jony Ive plan to kill smartphones!
Woah. What a week we’ve had. Zuck just showcased Meta’s Orion - the most advanced (and most impressive) smart glasses the world has seen yet.
While that took tech headlines by storm, Jony Ive, the renowned ex-design chief of Apple who brought us the iPhone, is silently collaborating with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on a new AI-powered device!
I’m wondering if these new developments in AI, XR (extended reality), and partnerships between tech visionaries hint at a future beyond smartphones and into smarter communication + reality-enhancing devices as we know it.
We explore in today’s edition of This Week in Products → Please Subscribe📬, if you haven’t already.
First - Meta’s Orion!
Orion is Meta’s moonshot. The social media giant missed the bus on the smartphone race to create its own devices. But now in a multiyear, multibillion-dollar effort, it wants to position itself at the forefront of mixed reality connected hardware.
The journey in this endeavor started five years back with their Quest series of headsets and later Apple joined the bandwagon with their Vision Pro series. Meta’s Quest may have won this battle with Apple, but they are both struggling to become mainstream.
Not just Quest and Vision, most XR headsets are not mass-market products today because they are big, clunky, and expensive and you simply cannot wear them and do your daily tasks at the same time. But, it’s all about to change with Orion.
The holographic smart glasses use an entirely new type of display, Zuckerberg said. “This is not pass-through, this is the real world with holograms overlaid on it,” he said.
This means the Orion prototype is sleek(er), looks more like sunglasses, and shows a lot of promise for becoming a lifestyle device. In other words, we won’t look like complete idiots wearing one and walking on the streets.
That’s the north star our industry has been building towards: a product combining the convenience and immediacy of wearables with a large display, high-bandwidth input and contextualized AI in a form that people feel comfortable wearing in their daily lives.
So, what would it take to build an “iPhone” of the AI era?
Let’s recap Zuckerberg’s views on the interconnectedness of artificial intelligence and extended reality glasses during Meta's Q1 earnings call earlier this year.
He said, “Glasses are the ideal device for an AI assistant because you can let them see what you see and hear what you hear, so they have full context on what’s going on around you as they help you with whatever you’re trying to do.
These developments remind me of the early mobile phones. Looking back, they might seem outdated and clunky now, but they paved the way for the sleek smartphones we carry today. The Orion prototype feels like the next step toward a future where AI and augmented reality are seamlessly integrated into our daily lives.
The sleeker and more modern lifestyle-focused designs of Orion could immensely help mainstream XR headsets if Meta could get the price right.
If we look at history, the most successful products in tech, like Apple’s iPhone, became successful because they were so easy to use and elegantly integrated into our lives. The same goes for Orion and things could only get better from here.
This brings us to Jony Ive + Altman partnership.
Speaking about designing technology products that integrate with our daily lives, very few people could better Jony Ive, the legendary ex-design chief of Apple who gave us the iPhone.
Steve Jobs, the enigmatic founder of Apple even quipped once, "If I had a spiritual partner at Apple, it's Jony. He has more operational power than anyone else at Apple except me."
Ive is now collaborating with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on “a new AI-powered device”. This collaboration was confirmed yesterday in a profile of Ive in The New York Times, nearly a year after initial reports suggested a partnership between Altman and the longtime Apple designer.
The profile describes the goal as creating “a product that uses A.I. to deliver a computing experience that is less socially disruptive than the iPhone.”
The time is ripe. Smartphone sales are already declining
Global smartphone sales after reaching their peak in 2018 have now plateaued largely due to market saturation. Almost everyone who needs a smartphone has one, and the pool of new buyers is shrinking.
In contrast, AI-enabled devices are booming. IDC predicts that generative AI smartphone shipments will grow by 364% year-over-year in 2024, reaching 234.2 million units and expanding to 912 million units by 2028!
Sam Altman likely recognizes this shift.
There is also this thing to note - Altman is arguably the most powerful man in tech right now - cutting deals with megacaps to tap into their massive distribution channel and at the same time building products that compete with them.
Take Apple for instance. Altman partnered with Apple to put ChatGPT on the iPhone but the collaboration with Ive could eventually become an iPhone killer - a new computing device made for and in the age of generative AI.
I think Altman is viewing AI-enabled smartphones like the Apple 16 as just a stepping stone toward something much bigger: a generative AI-focused computing device, built from the ground up to leverage the capabilities of AI, rather than retrofitting AI into existing smartphone interfaces (like iPhone 16)
Sam Altman knows that Apple has already lost this race.
This is evident by the iPhone 16’s lagging sales. Also, when was the last time you saw Apple come up with something new? They are in a mature market and are run by bean counters now rather than by product innovators.
The next “iPhone moment” - Meta vs OpenAI
With both Meta’s Orion and the Altman-Ive collaboration, we’re seeing two different approaches to the same challenge of redefining how we interact with technology and communicate with each other.
Meta’s Orion aims to enhance our current reality with digital overlays. It’s a wearable device that blends the physical and digital worlds, making AI more accessible, creative, and useful, potentially creating the next major shift in personal technology since the iPhone.
On the other hand, Altman and Ive’s partnership seems to explore creating a device that utilizes AI to provide a less disruptive computing experience—reimagining what a personal computing device looks like when AI isn’t just a feature but the core experience.
The challenge will be how to bring that future to life in a way that redefines our relationship with technology.
Network & Learn from India’s Top Healthtech Leaders!
ProdWrks, our product community, is hosting panel discussions on - Opportunities in Digital Healthcare for Founders on October 12th in Chennai. Please register and attend our event to network with our stellar line-up of investors, founders, and digital health leaders from the healthcare and health-tech space.
Venue: Zifo RnD Solutions - DLF IT Park, Porur, Chennai.
Date and Time: October 12th - 10:00 am to 12:30 pm
Here's what awaits you at this power-packed event:
Panel 1: Solving for India's Health - Problems and Opportunities
We dive deep into the pressing challenges facing India's healthcare system and the innovative solutions that are emerging. Our panelists will share their insights on:
Key challenges of the Indian healthcare system.
Technological advancements and success stories of innovative healthcare solutions from startups and digital-first healthcare providers in the Indian market.
Patient Empowerment and Engagement with Digital Healthcare.
Policy and Regulations shaping the Indian healthcare landscape
And other allied topics related to Indian healthcare.
Panel 2: The Future of Medicine: Next-Generation Technologies
This panel will focus on the cutting-edge technologies reshaping the future of medicine, and how these advancements will drive the next wave of healthcare innovation globally. Our panelists will share their insights on:
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Latest advancements in genomics, telemedicine, wearable devices, and more. How these innovations are improving patient outcomes, reducing costs, and driving a more personalized approach to healthcare.
Future Trends: A look at the future landscape of healthcare, including innovations on the horizon and how companies can stay ahead of the curve.
Don't miss this opportunity to network and learn from the first-hand experiences of leaders in tech-first healthcare organizations. Registration is free but mandatory to attend the event.
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📬I hope you enjoyed this week's curated stories and resources. Check your inbox again next week, or read previous editions of this newsletter for more insights. To get instant updates, connect with me on LinkedIn.
Cheers!
Khuze Siam
Founder: Siam Computing & ProdWrks