Campfire recently announced the upcoming launch of its enterprise XR software for Apple Vision Pro headsets. This news comes after the company experienced a significant increase in user numbers on the Meta Quest 3.
Campfire points out that the rapid growth of its MR application on Meta Quest 3 reflects a strong demand for virtual collaboration within the Meta portfolio, highlighting competition between Apple and Meta in enterprise usability. Beyond these headline-makers, other enterprise vendors such as Lenovo, PICO, and HTC VIVE contribute to developing a healthy market.
Jay Wright, Campfire CEO and Co-Founder, sat down with XR Today to discuss the solution’s success on Meta Quest, the move to Apple Vision Pro, and how the firm’s growth rates reflect on broader XR in enterprise usage.
Campfire allows remote workers to collaborate over the same 3D assets using AR/MR visualisations. Wright explained that the Campfire platform enables workers to take 3D models of physical assets and places and share those as RT3D resources “very simply with others as if you’re around a campfire.”
Wright added
Today, we’re all familiar with collaboration tools in the 2D domain, such as Google Docs and PowerPoint. They’re all very simple to use and intuitive. We brought that same ease of use and simplicity to Campfire. It’s just as easy to copy and paste 3D models into campfire scenes as it is to work with pictures and text in PowerPoint. We make it extremely easy to share that content.
Meta Quest, from Consumer to Enterprise
Wright noted that Meta Quest 3 brought with it an “interesting phenomenon”: the fact that Meta markets the MR headset primarily as a consumer device allows it to become successful as an enterprise device potentially.
“That might sound a little counterintuitive to folks,” remarked Wright, who also noted that Campfire is observing that customers are buying the Quest 3 for consumer needs like gaming or exercise, but after that initial purchase, those buyers will take the device to work and discover new use cases.
Wright explained:
That would not otherwise happen if it was not a consumer device. It’s worth noting that this is the same phenomenon we saw in the early iPhone days, which was a consumer device, and we called it the consumerization of IT. But people bought these as consumers, took them to work, and just started using them and driving their adoption. It’s a little counterintuitive, but the fact that it is consumer is making it additionally a great device in the enterprise.
Due to the firm’s favourable growth rates on the Quest 3 device, Campfire scaled the product to the emerging Vision Pro headset. The firm announced Campfire on Apple Vision Pro at a crucial point when Apple also announced international product availability.
Wright noted his team was “extremely happy with what we saw in Quest.” During this period, the Campfire team also noticed that several of its “larger customers” bought Vision Pros—”we’re very excited about the experience on Vision Pro. It’s really a very high-fidelity experience, and we were very excited to see what Campfire is going to look like there.”
Developing for Vision Pro
A wide range of end devices, from smartphones to headsets, support XR in various forms. Each device has a different SDK or developer pipeline and different forms of interaction.
A key selling point behind the Apple Vision Pro is its approach to accessible user interactivity. The device notably ditches controller-based input to focus on eye and hand-tracking controls that support gaze and pinch controls.
Apple’s input approach could be vital in its workplace/productivity journey. A common trap with XR is complex controller inputs for those unfamiliar with gaming, where companies can perceive XR as solely a gaming tool rather than a workplace solution.
From a developer standpoint, Apple’s input method is both a new challenge and an opportunity. Wright noted that the new interaction model was one aspect that made the Campfire team interested in the device.
Wright explained that Campfire “really believes in” the Vision Pro gaze and pinch input system, which moves from controllers. However, the CEO noted that the team understands how to adapt to the gaze and pinch interface. ” We still have some work to do there,” he remarked.
The Lessons Learned Developing on Meta Quest and Vision Pro
Wright explained that the most significant difference between developing Meta Quest 3 and Vision Pro applications is dealing with the different interaction models. ” On Quest, you’ve got controllers that’s a very familiar interface. This gaze and pinch, it’s a very different approach; that is, without question, challenge number 1,” Wright said.
The other challenge Wright mentions is working with the technical development tools on Vision Pro, specifically tools still in their early stages, such as the Unity toolchain.
Wright also added:
Those things are early and still evolving, as gaps are filled for functionality that’s there on other platforms and isn’t quite implemented on Vision Pro. There’s a little bit of friction to overcome, but I think those things will all take care of themselves, and in the very near future, Apple will move very quickly to address them.
Is Meta’s OS Truly Open Compared to Vision Pro
Meta has recently moved to try to become the open-source avenue for XR content creation worldwide. From Meta’s work with OpenXR and, more recently, its goals to promote Horizon OS as an open-source tool to rival the Vision Pro walled garden perspective, Mark Zuckerg is painting a picture to entice Meta Quest developers to create killer applications for the Quest portfolio.
Speaking on Meta’s open-source approach, Wright expressed:
I think ‘open’ is a little bit of a loaded term. When it comes to a developer perspective, I wouldn’t say one is any more open than the other, for both of those [platforms] you gotta follow some rules, use some SDK’s and put apps into an App Store with an approval process. The other that is probably worth noting, at least on the enterprise side, is that Apple has opened up some things that Meta has yet to open up, specifically camera access, most recently with visionOS 2. Be careful with the use of the ‘open’ term. But from our perspective, I wouldn’t call one more open than another.
The Impact of MR Headsets
According to a recent report by IDC, global shipments of AR/VR headsets decreased significantly in the first quarter of 2024, 67.4 per cent compared to the previous year. This decline mainly affected VR headsets, as potential customers demonstrated a preference for MR/AR devices. IDC also expects MR headset shipment volume to increase with an annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43.9 per cent from 2024 to 2028.
“It’s hard to overstate the impact pass-through has had on the device landscape,” noted Wright. The CEO explained that now the XR headset device marketplace “has been redefined and simplified as a category,” thanks to an increase in MR devices.
Wright also notes that some enterprise groups leverage the consumer-perceived Quest 3 product instead of trusted enterprise MR devices such as the HoloLens or Magic Leap 2; due to the Quest 3’s pass-through integration, “it is a whole new world.”
