In line with a report from The Data citing two Meta staff, Meta has canceled its plans for a premium mixed-reality headset. It appears the corporate advised Actuality Lab staff to halt work on the product this week after executives, together with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, reviewed the challenge.
It’s unsure whether or not the system was destined to be a sequel to the Meta Quest Professional or a very new product, however it’s clear that growing a competitor for the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional was the aim of the challenge.
Some sources report that Meta needed to maintain the price of its headset under $1,000, however it proved not possible given the present worth of the micro-OLED shows it needed to make use of — that’s the identical tech contained in the Imaginative and prescient Professional. The 2 staff additionally say the challenge started in November 2023, just some months after the Imaginative and prescient Professional was introduced.
Contemplating Quest Professional is now discontinued and Imaginative and prescient Professional gross sales don’t appear to be doing very properly, it’s attainable Meta merely determined the market doesn’t need one other costly headset proper now. The corporate is simply abandoning this explicit mixed-reality challenge, nonetheless, and plans for the Quest 4 are reportedly nonetheless on observe for a 2026 launch.
It’s a disgrace that we will’t all have ultra-high-definition headsets proper now, however show tech all the time comes down in worth over time, so maybe in just a few years, micro-OLEDs would be the norm for VR. As for the spatial computing and productiveness facet of issues, it’s clear that headsets have to get considerably lighter and extra comfy earlier than individuals can really think about sporting them for hours a day whereas they work.
Meta might need canceled plans for a business product for now, however hopefully, its groups will maintain engaged on the analysis wanted to make these developments occur.