What it’s good to know
- Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will meet with LG CEO Cho Joo-wan on Wednesday to plan an “AI-XR alliance,” based on the Korea Financial Every day.
- Allegedly, LG will develop the {hardware} and lend its webOS TV interface to the Meta Quest Professional 2, due out in Q1 2025.
- Meta might carry its AI companies to LG home equipment and IT companies.
- A earlier rumor advised the Quest Professional 2 would price $2,000.
On Wednesday, the CEOs of Meta and LG will meet in South Korea to debate an “AI-XR alliance,” based on trade sources. Among the many gadgets on the agenda, Meta will enlist LG’s assist in creating the Meta Quest Professional 2, its second try at a premium productiveness XR headset.
The Korea Financial Every day (through UploadVR) states that the “two firms plan to launch the highest-performance XR headset that surpasses Apple’s ‘Imaginative and prescient Professional’ within the first quarter of subsequent 12 months,” as per Google Translate.
Whereas early 2025 feels like a quick turnaround on paper, we first heard of a Meta-LG Quest Professional 2 again in September 2023, with a goal $2,000 worth level — $1,500 lower than the Imaginative and prescient Professional, however $1,000 greater than the Meta Quest Professional, which dropped $500 in worth a couple of months after launch as a result of poor gross sales.
Meta allegedly canceled a special Professional 2 prototype due out this 12 months, 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 companies to incorporate, and how one can devise a gross sales technique,” based on the KED.
Though LG will deal with the {hardware} and Meta the software program, the report claims that the Quest Professional 2 will swap to a brand new working system primarily based on LG’s WebOS, paired with Meta’s personal on-device AI.
Meta may even carry its AI know-how to LG’s residence home equipment (like TVs), more than likely as a digital assistant chatbot via 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 relating to a productiveness XR headset, it has to compete with the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, the rumored Samsung XR headset, Sony’s XR headset, and even a Huawei XR headset. On this atmosphere, it is smart for Meta to associate 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 Imaginative and prescient Professional, has the advantage of the App Retailer, giving it entry to hundreds of apps whereas Meta struggled to get many productiveness apps to make XR-ready software program for the Quest Professional. It additionally has a repute as an ideal system for streaming content material in a digital theater, similar to Disney+.
Regardless that 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 Imaginative and prescient Professional gives. In idea, although, a partnership with LG may assist Meta make inroads with its common streaming app companions.
It is also 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 sometimes use large, rectangular floating shows, we are able to definitely see how a TV-based OS would translate properly to blended actuality.
Plus, LG’s expertise manufacturing shows will assist Meta shut the hole with the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, which gives a ridiculous 11.5 million pixels per eye for visible realism. A productiveness headset, which employees 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 individuals $2,000 (allegedly) for the Quest Professional 2? It will depend upon the standard of the expertise and if Meta can poach sufficient of Apple’s spatial companions to carry their productiveness software program to different headsets. In that case, Meta could be the reasonably priced different to the Imaginative and prescient Professional.
