Facebook vs Apple: A contest in immersive virtual reality, in reverse?

RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL July 31, 2015

Apple-VS-FacebookIn the span of a couple of weeks, both Facebook and Apple have suffered the consequences of success. Both reported high revenue and profits but failed to exceed expectations in the way everyone had hoped.

As a result, their shares actually went down. Not up.

So far, so similar.

But here’s the main difference between Facebook and Apple. Facebook is imagining a future that’s hard to picture. Unless it does something drastic quickly, Apple seems to be equipping us for a tomorrow that looks a bit like yesterday.

Look at the way Facebook is reading tomorrow – it’s the world of anything could happen; may be even Oculus Rift, the virtual reality headset it launches next year, will be a runaway success.

It is spending more on data centers, research and development, and recruiting costs. Remember that analysts were frowning about Apple doing less than it should? Instead, Apple seemed too content to be sitting on a huge pile of money roughly equal to the GDP of Qatar.