Meta META increased by 3.39%; green up pointing triangle Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Meta Quest 3, the latest generation of the company’s virtual-reality headset.
The Meta Quest 3 will be 40% slimmer and have upgraded screens and resolution thanks to a new Qualcomm CPU. In a social media video, Zuckerberg stated that it is the company’s most powerful headgear to date.
According to Zuckerberg, Meta’s new VR headset will go on sale this fall and will start at $499. He stated that the corporation will provide more information during its Connect conference in September.
The news comes just days before Apple’s AAPL 1.40% increase; green up pointing triangle annual Worldwide Developers Conference, when the company is also expected to unveil a new VR headset.
In a strategic decision that resulted in Facebook being rebranded as Meta in 2021, Zuckerberg shifted his company’s attention to immersive virtual worlds, or the metaverse. The social media behemoth has invested billions of dollars on metaverse headsets, software, and apps.
However, the virtual world has encountered a harsh reality due to poor user uptake. Companies in the IT sector have been laying off workers and abandoning projects deemed unimportant. Mr. Zuckerberg has declared 2023 to be “the year of efficiency.”
Meta has struggled with consumer uptake of VR programs. Reality Labs, which manufactures the Meta Quest headgear, reported a $4 billion operational loss in the first three months of the year. Other competitors, such as Microsoft, have also failed to entice consumers to participate in VR projects.
“Building the metaverse is a long-term project, but the rationale for it remains the same, and we are committed to it,” Zuckerberg stated in April.
In March, Meta reduced the price of its Meta Quest Pro headphones in the United States and Canada from $1,499 to $999. The price of the Quest 2 VR headsets with 256 GB has dropped from $499 to $429.
Meta’s new VR gear debuts as the firm confronts increased competition from competitors such as TikTok parent company ByteDance. ByteDance recently promised to compensate developers who created VR software for Meta in order to bring their products to its own Pico devices. Sony Group released the PlayStation VR2, the second edition of their VR headset, earlier this year.
According to the Journal, Apple will debut a mixed-reality headset that mixes augmented and virtual reality. The headset’s uptake is expected to be slower than that of popular goods such as the Apple Watch or the iPhone.
According to International Data Corporation, global shipments of augmented-reality and virtual reality headgear dropped in the first quarter as demand cooled from epidemic highs. Shipments of AR and VR headsets fell 54% in the first three months of 2023 compared to the same time last year, according to IDC.
According to IDC, Meta held approximately 48% of the market share among AR and VR headset makers, followed by Sony’s PlayStation VR2 with 36%. Pico from ByteDance has around 6% of the market.
