With its Vision Pro, Apple offered consumers a high-performance mixed reality headset, but at an excessive price. If Apple can afford to sell a space computer for €3,999, this is not the case for the competition, which does not have a “community” as passionate and determined as Apple’s. Meta seems to have understood this since the company has apparently abandoned its idea of competing with the Vision Pro, Mark Zuckerberg estimated that a Quest at more than €3,500 could not sell.
Meta wants to avoid commercial failure
When the Apple Vision Pro was announced at WWDC 2023, Mark Zuckerberg and his Meta leadership team were determined to launch a direct competitor as soon as possible. However, that ambition now appears to be a thing of the past. According to sources familiar with the company’s internal operations, Meta has completely abandoned its plans for a high-end headset to compete with Apple’s Vision Pro.
The project, known internally by the code name “La Jolla”was supposed to be released in 2027. Designed to offer an alternative to the Vision Pro, this headset promised cutting-edge performance thanks to the integration of OLED micro-screens, an essential component to guarantee image quality that meets expectations. However, it was precisely this component that led to the abandonment of the project.
Indeed, OLED micro-displays, essential to achieve the level of precision and clarity required for this type of model, have caused production costs to explode. Meta had aimed to keep the price of its headset under $1,000, a threshold considered crucial to make it accessible to a wide audience. But with the cost of OLED micro-displays, this goal has become unachievable. Using another display technology would have resulted in inferior image quality, which would have made the product uncompetitive against the Apple Vision Pro.
Meta also closely observed how the Apple Vision Pro was doing with consumers, and the struggling sales of the space computer quickly gave Mark Zuckerberg’s company pause. If Apple, with its strong brand and powerful ecosystem, was struggling to achieve its sales goals with the Vision Pro, Meta judged that it would be even more difficult for a similar product from them to establish itself in the market. A logical reasoning that will save millions of dollars in research and development as well as in the salaries of the engineers and developers who would have been many to work on the project. “La Jolla”.
This abandonment does not mean that Meta is withdrawing from the AR/VR headset market.
However, Meta does not intend to abandon the market for virtual and augmented reality headsets. The company continues to develop the Meta Quest 4, which is scheduled for release in 2026. Unlike “La Jolla”the Quest 4 falls into a much more accessible price range, with an expected price around $500, similar to that of the Quest 3. This pricing strategy, coupled with a small profit margin, is seen as an effective way to achieve a large volume of sales, while continuing to innovate in the sector.
Meta’s decision to forgo a direct competitor to the Vision Pro shows the complexity of the market for virtual and augmented reality technologies, where the cost of components is particularly high.
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