Mark Zuckerberg's Meta is reportedly 'afraid of Apple' right now

For the first time in its history, Meta is set to go head-to-head with Apple in the gadgets game. And at least one worker at Mark Zuckerberg's company has reportedly said that employees are already feeling the pressure.

"We're in the 'afraid of Apple' stage," one Meta worker told Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

The two companies will compete to sell mixed-reality headsets after Apple first announced its plans to sell the Vision Pro earlier this year. While Meta has a healthy head start — the company revealed its first headset in 2017 — Gurman points out that Apple could be a formidable opponent for Mark Zuckerberg.

After all, Apple is known to bide its time when considering entering a new product category, waiting until it can offer an experience that trounces the previous competition.

Last month, Zuckerberg said in an interview that he'd initially had some worries that Apple could have demoed a breakthrough headset in June that meant Meta would have to "start over" on its own product, but he'd found that not to be the case.

Instead, Zuckerberg said Apple appears to have chosen to target a different part of the market with the Vision Pro's $3,499 price point. For comparison, Meta has been working to lower the prices for its headsets. Its entry-level Quest 2 is $299 and the upcoming Quest 3 will cost $499. Its most expensive headset, the Quest Pro, is priced around $1,000.