CNBC "Squawk Box" co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin found himself being grilled on "Morning Joe' on Monday morning when trying to defend Apple's entry into the virtual reality market with a $3,000 goggle that had Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski both rolling their eyes and laughing.
At the center of the discussion was Apple's introduction of the ski-goggle-like Apple VR/AR headset which is reportedly finally coming to the market with a boggling price tag that had the "Morning Joe' co-hosts skeptical over the need for it.
As The Verge reported, the new device, "... uses what’s called 'passthrough' AR. It features high-resolution screens and is capable of running full VR applications, but it’s also studded by cameras that can pass through a high-resolution image of the real world — according to rumors, you’ll hit a 'reality dial' to switch between AR and VR. That means it can offer the illusion of a real world with virtual objects overlaid on it." AR is an abbreviation for augmented reality.
Attempting to explain how the pricey goggles will work, Sorkin ran into a buzzsaw of questions and then laughter from the hosts that put him in the unenviable position of running to Apple's defense.
"This is going to be a very sort of super-sophisticated metaverse where you and I, we're all going to be in the same room together and if i look this way and you look that way, and we're going to be looking at each other and there's going to be gaming, there's going to be office capabilities," he attempted as Scarborough laughed and Brzezinski looked appalled.
"And we'll see," Sorkin soldiered on. "Some people say nobody wants to live in this world and there's other people who think this is the future."
"Everyone in the room is going to have a $3,000 pair?" Brzezinski pressed as Scarborough jumped in and quipped, "Come over to my apartment and we can, like, play Risk together."
"Those are the trivial versions of it," the CNBC host shot back. "There are serious ones. You know, a doctor in New York or in California could help somebody in Africa somewhere. Literally there are real purposes to this. It could change travel; if you want to go on a trip and see something, you could literally go on a trip and put your goggles on. I know that may not sound nearly as fun as getting on an airplane, but this is where it's going, folks."
That led co-host Brzezinski to cut in and state, "Just stop."
Watch below:
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