The first $1,000 Meta Quest Pro was shortly supplanted by the Meta Quest 3, a tool that value half the worth. A brand new report—now successfully confirmed by Meta execs—claims Meta is not contemplating a brand new, costly headset to be worthwhile. In spite of everything, CEO Mark Zuckerberg already claimed the $500 Quest 3 is better than the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro in each manner that issues. Why trouble with a competing, costly headset?
Meta has reportedly been creating a number of new AR/VR merchandise, together with a pair of true altered reality glasses (and so has Apple). A kind of initiatives was a Professional-level headset codenamed La Jolla. On Friday, The Information reported, based mostly on nameless sources, that Meta determined to axe the headset initially slated for 2027. The report mentions that Meta Quest 4 remains to be in improvement, with a deliberate launch in 2026.
That headset was going to be very very similar to Apple’s Vision Pro. It was imagined to have micro-OLED shows. Meta reportedly needed to craft a headset as succesful as Imaginative and prescient Professional and promote it for lower than $1,000. That’s a tall order for such high-quality shows, and the corporate couldn’t discover a technique to match the prices, in keeping with The Data’s sources.
On Threads, Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth not directly confirmed The Data’s report: “We now have many prototypes in improvement always. However we don’t carry all of them to manufacturing. We transfer ahead with some; we move on others… tales based mostly on chatter about one particular person resolution won’t ever give the actual image.”
Meta has been making an attempt to juggle the price of AR improvement with its plans to dominate the {industry}. Whereas we’re not listening to the phrase “metaverse” practically as a lot as we as soon as did, the corporate’s VR-focused Actuality Labs division continues to burn through billions of dollars. In its last quarterly earnings report, Meta reported Actuality Labs misplaced $4.5 billion in its second quarter alone.
In line with a earlier report from The Data, Zuck’s beginning to rely the bucks his company spends on AR. At this level, the corporate has a two-pronged technique for VR. Now that different corporations are making headsets based on Meta’s own RealityOS, it could possibly change into the sugar daddy of AR software program whereas nonetheless pumping out the most-capable digital actuality {hardware}.
Simply final week, Meta added the power to make use of an HDMI link to reflect any PC, cellphone, or different appropriate machine at 1080p. The corporate’s newest updates have vastly improved the hand monitoring efficiency, and it’s edging near the Imaginative and prescient Professional’s industry-leading monitoring.
In the meantime, Vision Pro sales have stalled in the U.S. simply as Apple is moving into the European and Asian markets. A giant issue for that’s worth, and Meta might be taking a look at Apple, questioning whether or not the general public is able to purchase a VR headset that prices greater than $3,500 and even $1,000. Apple’s going to strive that with a rumored cheaper Vision headset that can possible be much less flashy than the Imaginative and prescient Professional.
As a substitute of spending much more cash on a costlier Quest, Meta is best off enhancing the capabilities of its cheaper headsets. That possible gained’t cease the cash drain, but when it may be the one to lastly crack AR glasses, maybe it could possibly get the broader public to care.
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