The Meta Quest 2 has been on the market for 2 years and is now facing serious competition for the first time BiteDance his Pico 4 and a standalone VR headset from HTC to be unveiled at CES 2023. The Meta Quest Pro is not really consumer-friendly with its 1,800 euros, so now from the technical Meta Director Andrew Bosworth the Meta Quest 3 announced for 2023. “The Boz” also promises new augmented reality glasses for the coming year.
Meta Quest 3 Coming In 2023 – CTO Ponders
Mark Zuckerberg’s former Harvard classmate and Andrew Bosworth, who has been with Facebook since 2006, has now taken a very critical stance on the in-house Meta-Blog addressed to the public. “A tough 2022 is behind us”, said the meta-CTO and head of Reality Labs. Like Oculus, Facebook is now called Meta, Doom luminary John Carmack has left Meta and the not-so-cheap one Meta Quest Pro is now available for €1,800. And although important milestones for the metaverse were set through face and eye tracking, the standalone MR headset is not suitable for a very large community.
This is more the territory of those presented in October 2021 Meta Quest 2 Standalone VR glasses, which have felt the competition breathing down their necks over the past few days. The Pico 4 shows first worldwide sales successes and also HTC has CES for the coming month announced a consumer-friendly wireless VR headset in Las Vegas. So it’s time for a successor, which not only Mark Zuckerberg announced at Meta Connect, but also Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth takes the same line. Interesting that both of them don’t mention the name Meta Quest 3.
Bosworth has not yet announced technical data, but it says: “You will love the sequel to Meta Quest 2“. But it shouldn’t stay with Meta Quest 3 in 2023. The technical director also hints at AR glasses:
While our VR devices and software receive most of the public’s attention, we direct regarding half of our Reality Labs operating expenses to our AR initiatives.
With that, “The Boz” confirms my suspicions that all current technologies like AR/VR/MR/XR will boil down to just one at the end of the day. So Meta will – in my opinion – put its efforts into the Quest 3 mainly for the better RGB passthrough technology needed for mixed reality. The latest Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 1 from Qualcomm should also be found in the next-gen VR headset. While I’d still advocate for better pancake lenses, I’m wary of the all-important eye and face tracking.
The price must be able to be paid by the masses, which is why a price limit of EUR 600 to 700 is set. And there must be some kind of authorization for the Meta Quest Pro, which will then also be the Apple Reality Pro must ask. I don’t expect a presentation of Meta Quest 3 or Meta AR glasses before the next Meta Connect 2023 in autumn. Although the “Meta Quest Gaming Showcase” would also be a good stage for presenting the Meta Quest 3, which is prioritized for gaming, right?
Which of you has already immersed yourself in the world of VR/MR and which headset did you treat yourself to? Do you believe that 2023 will really take off in the field of virtual, mixed and external reality? Write us in the comments, I’m free to your opinion!