The Information reported over the weekend that Meta has abandoned plans to launch a premium headset and competitor to Apple Vision by 2027.
The device, codenamed “La Jolla,” would have succeeded the disastrously failed Meta Quest Pro if it had actually become a product. But that’s not going to happen, at least not in the next few years.
However, it would be premature to conclude that this is the end of the Quest Pro 2 as a device category. After the report appeared, Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth spoke out on Threads. He did not deny the news, and stressed that it was only the end of one particular prototype.
“Just your regularly scheduled public service announcement: we have many prototypes in development at all times. But we don’t bring all of them to production. We move forward with some, we pass on others. Decisions like this happen all the time, and stories based on chatter about one individual decision will never give the real picture,” Bosworth wrote.
Meta’s decision to shelve the Quest Pro 2 for the time being is a good one. Why should the company spend valuable resources and attention on a class of devices for which there is not yet a significant market? Meta’s goal is to bring VR and AR to the masses, not to sell a few hundred thousand highly specialized headsets. Meta is leaving that market to the OEMs. Overall, it is better for the industry if Meta focuses on lowering the barriers to entry rather than raising them.
The market needs competition on the mid-range/budget front, those high end features aren’t “trickling down” as there’s no hardware for them to go.
A perfect example of what I am talking about is the lenses from the quest pro ended up in the Quest 3 providing great visuals for a more mid range headset. It is very true that we do need more headsets in general for people to select from on the mid to lower end.
That’s just one feature, and not everyone followed - PSVR 2 uses Fresnel lenses, upcoming “cheaper” Quest 3 is rumoured to use Fresnel lenses as well.