Mark Zuckerberg, Meta Platforms' CEO, announced the company's upcoming mixed reality headset, the Quest III, as competition from Apple is looming. The Quest III will be 40 percent thinner than its predecessor and will feature color mixed reality, combining augmented and virtual reality elements. Meta also plans to lower the price of its current Quest 2 headsets while enhancing their performance.
The Quest 3 will be released in autumn with a Qualcomm chipset that doubles the graphics performance of the Quest 2 and is anticipated to be available in mid-August. The announcement comes just after Apple's anticipated unveiling of its own mixed-reality device.
Despite Meta's dominance in the virtual reality market, it has faced obstacles expanding beyond the gaming landscape and realizing its vision of an interconnected metaverse. In the most recent quarter, Meta's revenue from headset sales fell 50 percent, and headset sales overall have dropped by 54.4 percent year-on-year.
Apple is scheduled to launch its new Mixed Reality headset at WWDC 2023 on June 5th. Quest 3 is expected to demand a significant premium compared to the headset. Leaks have suggested that Apple could launch the VR headset at a price of $3000, around Rs. 250,000. Despite being competitors, Meta will also give Meta a push as buyers look for cheaper alternatives to enter the VR ecosystem. The price cuts of Quest 2 could also boost consumption further.