What you should know
- Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will meet with LG CEO Cho Joo-wan on Wednesday to plan an “AI-XR alliance,” in response to the Korea Economic Daily.
- Allegedly, LG will develop the {hardware} and lend its webOS TV interface to the Meta Quest Pro 2, due out in Q1 2025.
- Meta could deliver its AI providers to LG home equipment and IT providers.
- A earlier rumor instructed the Quest Pro 2 would value $2,000.
On Wednesday, the CEOs of Meta and LG will meet in South Korea to debate an “AI-XR alliance,” in response to trade sources. Among the objects on the agenda, Meta will enlist LG’s assist in creating the Meta Quest Pro 2, its second try at a premium productiveness XR headset.
The Korea Economic Daily (through UploadVR) states that the “two firms plan to launch the highest-performance XR headset that surpasses Apple’s ‘Vision Pro’ in the primary quarter of subsequent yr,” as per Google Translate.
While early 2025 feels like a quick turnaround on paper, we first heard of a Meta-LG Quest Pro 2 again in September 2023, with a goal $2,000 worth level — $1,500 lower than the Vision Pro, however $1,000 greater than the Meta Quest Pro, which dropped $500 in worth a couple of months after launch on account of poor gross sales.
Meta allegedly canceled a unique Pro 2 prototype due out this yr, codenamed Funston, earlier than pivoting to this LG-made prototype.
This assembly will cement the plans put in place months in the past, whereas laying out how one can hit that early 2025 launch date, “what providers to incorporate, and how one can devise a gross sales technique,” in response to the KED.
Although LG will deal with the {hardware} and Meta the software program, the report claims that the Quest Pro 2 will swap to a brand new working system primarily based on LG’s WebOS, paired with Meta’s personal on-device AI.
Meta will additionally deliver its AI expertise to LG’s house home equipment (like TVs), most certainly as a digital assistant chatbot by way of distant controls. We assume that Meta’s “human-level AI” will want extra time earlier than it involves any business product.
Meta has the market cornered for gaming VR, however in relation to a productiveness XR headset, it has to compete with the Apple Vision Pro, the rumored Samsung XR headset, Sony’s XR headset, and even a Huawei XR headset. In this atmosphere, it is sensible for Meta to companion with a serious producer who has expertise on each the {hardware} and software program sides, the place Meta’s rivals have a bonus.
Its largest rival, the Apple Vision Pro, has the advantage of the App Store, giving it entry to hundreds of apps whereas Meta struggled to get many productiveness apps to make XR-ready software program for the Quest Pro. It additionally has a popularity as a fantastic system for streaming content material in a digital theater, corresponding to Disney+.
Even although the Quest 3 has a surprisingly good assortment of media apps, they’re strictly VR apps that lack mixed-reality passthrough or any futuristic controls just like the Vision Pro presents. In principle, although, a partnership with LG may assist Meta make inroads with its common streaming app companions.
It’s additionally the case that the Meta Quest UI is taken into account a weak level of its headsets. LG’s WebOS is not an particularly superior working system, however contemplating XR headsets usually use large, rectangular floating shows, we are able to actually see how a TV-based OS would translate effectively to blended actuality.
Plus, LG’s expertise manufacturing shows will assist Meta shut the hole with the Apple Vision Pro, which presents a ridiculous 11.5 million pixels per eye for visible realism. A productiveness headset, which staff should theoretically put on all day, wants a transparent visible expertise to assist customers keep away from eye pressure and complications.
Will this be sufficient for Meta to justify charging folks $2,000 (allegedly) for the Quest Pro 2? It’ll depend upon the standard of the expertise and if Meta can poach sufficient of Apple’s spatial companions to deliver their productiveness software program to different headsets. In that case, Meta might be the reasonably priced various to the Vision Pro.