What you need to know
- Meta and LG planned to challenge the Apple Vision Pro with a “new high-performance XR headset,” likely called the Meta Quest Pro 2.
- An LG spokesperson said that LG has moved most of the team out of the project, essentially signaling that the headset has been cancelled.
- Meta and LG will continue to partner on R&D on VR headset components, which means we’ll likely still get LG-made components in future Meta Quest headsets.
Just as Apple’s Vision Pro made its debut in February of this year, Meta and LG announced a strategic partnership “to release the highest performance XR headset that surpasses Apple’s Vision Pro in the first quarter of next year. But it turns out that things didn’t go according to plan and LG is canceling work on the aforementioned headphones.
A report from ET News (via Road to VR) confirms that earlier rumors of a shaky partnership were true. According to an LG Electronics official, the company has “recently finalized the personnel relocation policy at the head of the XR business. The relocation will be carried out in about a month taking into account the desired departments and jobs, as well as the demand for additional manpower from other departments”.
LG reportedly made the move specifically because industry growth for a premium XR headset didn’t match the company’s internal projections. Apple pulled in about $630 million during the product launch, but reports since then have indicated that demand for the company’s $3,500 headphones has slowed significantly.
A year ago, Meta was said to have dropped its plans for an in-house developed Quest Pro 2, but Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said only one headset prototype was canceled and that the company is working on several prototypes at any given time. Likewise, the report from ET News notes that Meta and LG’s partnership has not dissolved, and that the companies will continue to partner on R&D for XR headset components in the future.
This means that LG-made screens and other important components should still be used in the upcoming Meta Quest headset. Perhaps this means that the Meta Quest 4 will use an LG-made OLED panel, or that one of the upcoming Meta Horizon OS-powered headsets made by Asus and Lenovo could use other LG components.
Meta has neither confirmed nor denied its plans for a Quest Pro 2, although, as previously stated, the company regularly tests prototype devices that could one day become a proper consumer device. Whether one of them will be called “Quest Pro 2” or something completely different will depend on the circumstances.
We know that the upcoming Samsung XR headphones produced in partnership with Samsung and Google plan to challenge the Apple Vision Pro by trying to beat it at its own game. Mainly, this means offering super-high-resolution displays and millions of apps available at the product’s launch, which is currently expected to happen sometime in 2025.
Google also recently announced a partnership with AR glasses maker Magic Leap, which will likely use the same Android XR operating system as the Samsung XR headset. Google quietly showed off XR technology at this year’s Google I/O show, helping to showcase what could become a mainstay in future human communication.
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Image Source : www.androidcentral.com
