The Quest Pro series may be dead as Meta struggles to stay in the VR game

Meta has reportedly determined to cancel all future work on Quest Pro VR headsets together with suspending all “development on the second-generation Quest Pro”. 

According to a latest report by The Information, sources shut to the state of affairs declare that Meta informed its suppliers “earlier this year it won’t order any new components for” its high-end headset. GoerTek, the Chinese electronics firm who manufactures the Quest Pro, will proceed to achieve this “until the remaining inventory of [parts] runs out”. 

So as soon as all the items have been made, that’s it. There may not longer be new Quest Pro items after this.

The Information factors to a number of components as to why the Quest Pro might be discontinued. For starters, it wasn’t all that nicely acquired. We appreciated the Quest Pro when it first got here out, however apparently not sufficient folks did as gross sales have been persistently weak. Even the $500 worth minimize wasn’t sufficient to save the headset so Meta may have determined to minimize its losses. 

Development woes

The report goes on to say there have been lot of growth issues, forcing the firm to refocus their efforts.

The Information claims that Meta is engaged on a pair of AR glasses, code-named Orion. Originally, the glasses had been supposed to use particular microLED shows from British tech Plessey. However, the firm had difficulties in decreasing manufacturing defects as nicely as making these shows “bright enough for use”. Because of those points, Meta is altering course by outfitting the Orion glasses with LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) screens  –  a bit of growing older know-how that, as TheVerge factors out, was first seen in film projectors throughout the Nineties.

Developmental woes don’t cease there as they have an effect on Meta’s different tasks. Another pair of AR glasses in the work, code-named Artemis, was supposed to use silicon carbide in its development to provide a large 70 diploma subject of view. But problems arose forcing the firm to use common glass, shrinking its subject of view down to 50 levels. 

The report goes on to point out a number of failures, including to skyrocketing prices. The stress is mounting on the agency, and if that wasn’t sufficient, competitors is getting fiercer as Apple revealed its Vision Pro VR headset throughout WWDC 2023, and it is shaping up to be a powerful piece of tech.

Some on-line publications speculate the Vision Pro is the sole motive why the Quest Pro is getting canceled. The prevailing principle is Meta worries it gained’t be in a position to compete with Apple’s machine. While that may be one motive, the extra possible offender is the rising developmental points exasperated by a middling response in the direction of the Quest Pro.

Benefit of the doubt

We do not know for certain what Meta’s plans are shifting ahead. The Information’s report claims it is going to work on cheaper choices like the Quest 2.

At the time of writing, Meta has but to formally reply. We would love to give the firm the advantage of the doubt, as it is also possible that the experiences of the Quest Pro’s demise have been enormously exaggerated. We reached out to Meta to see if it might like to make a press release about the report. This story will be up to date at a later time.

If you’re in stepping into VR, be certain to try TechRadar’s on the finest headsets for 2023. There are lots of pretty cheap choices on the market.