VR: Meta Launches Quest 3 Days Before Apple’s Announcement – 6/1/2023 – Tech

Facebook parent Meta unveiled its new virtual reality (VR) device on Thursday, indicating an ongoing commitment to building a “metaverse” full of avatars.

The announcement comes as the company seeks to steal the attention of competitor Apple, which is also expected to announce its first headset of its kind next Monday (5).

In a video posted on Instagram, Meta’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, launched the new product, Meta Quest 3, which goes on sale in the third quarter of this year. It features virtual and augmented reality technologies – known as “mixed reality” – that allow users to interact in fully digital environments as well as with graphics overlaid on top of the real world.

Zuckerberg called it “Meta’s most powerful headset to date”, with 40% thinner hardware and twice the graphics performance.

The Meta launch represents an effort to provide consumers with an affordable device ahead of Apple’s unveiling of its new product next Monday at the iPhone maker’s annual developer conference.

While Apple’s headset is expected to cost around $3,000, the Quest 3 will retail for $499. The price of the Quest 2 model will be reduced by $100 to $299.

“Speculation about Apple’s expected entry into the VR market [está] dominating the tech discourse, and Meta is clearly intent on reminding everyone of its credentials in this space,” said Leo Gebbie, analyst at consultancy CCS Insight. [Meta] is eager to assert its authority in the face of new competition.”

The latest version of its Quest headset reinforces the company’s desire to lead the so-called metaverse – virtual worlds whose users interact with each other online.

But Meta has also tried to ease shareholder frustration over the more than $10 billion a year it is spending to develop its ambitions in the metaverse. She initiated sweeping layoffs as part of a cost-cutting move that Zuckerberg described as her “year of efficiency.”

Tech group sells nearly 80% of all VR and AR headsets [realidade aumentada]but the market itself is relatively small compared to smartphones, PCs or game consoles, with less than 9 million units sold last year, according to IDC.

The company’s Reality Labs unit, which includes sales of headsets, represents less than 2% of Meta’s total revenue of $117 billion last year.

Meta’s new equipment is lighter, with improved resolution and performance, powered by a new Qualcomm computer chip dedicated to mixed reality. Apple is expected to use its own chips to power its equipment. Quest 3 will offer improved “pass-through” capabilities – the ability to switch between the real world and virtual space while wearing the headset, seamlessly and in full color. Quest 2 only offers blurred real-world recordings in black and white.

However, the Quest 3 does not seem to have the ability to track eye movements, a feature that exists in Sony’s new headset, the PlayStation VR2, which adjusts the screen according to where the player is looking.

Meta has been exploring ways to scale up its augmented reality experiences, including through a multi-year deal with startup Magic Leap.

Collaborated Tim Bradshaw. Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves