Starting the year, Meta announced the discontinuation of its Meta Quest Pro MR headset, following a mixed bag of success for the enterprise-facing head-mounted device.
Meta recently announced via the device’s landing page that the Quest Pro is “no longer available.” Meta has not explained why the device is discontinued; however, audiences can assume the move relates to the headset’s lacklustre performance in its chosen workplace market and the relatively recent launch of the cheaper Quest 3S MR headset, both of which may have contributed to the move.
The Meta Quest Pro first launched following its announcement at Connect 2022, with the MR device coming way before the Meta Quest 3/3S. The Meta Quest Pro came at a high price point, costing roughly £469.99 at the time of its discontinuation, a steep price for many.
While its MR integrations, including colour passthrough, eye, and hand tracking, were fairly ground-breaking and ahead of the pack upon release, the device is somewhat outmatched by the far more accessible 3/3S series of MR headsets, debatably making the Quest Pro somewhat redundant.
But despite the Quest Pro’s rocky journey, the device should be recognised as a crucial stepping stone for Meta. Since the 2022 announcement, Meta has committed to MR and AR devices, broadening the company’s product portfolio greatly by moving away from solely VR services and towards MR headsets, AR smart glasses, and beyond.
Meta’s MR Headset Roadmap
The Meta Quest 3S debuted at the firm’s yearly Connect showcase event last year. The product offers a lower-cost version of the Quest 3 MR device in a bid to increase adoption. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth in the previous year noted that MR is “at the heart of what Meta is trying to achieve with Reality Labs,” with the CTO explaining that the technology holds “the greatest potential” for unlocking the metaverse, “the chance to create the most social platform ever” Bosworth remarked.
According to Bosworth, in 2024, two key elements came together to build the social MR focus: Horizon Worlds expanding and reaching mobile users and “next-generation Meta Avatars system[s].”
Meta is working to rebuild Meta Horizon after a slow launch during the Metaverse hype wave. With an MR and broader device-ready strategy in the works, “our vision for Horizon OS is to build a new kind of general-purpose computing platform capable of running every kind of software, supporting every kind of user, and open to every kind of creator and developer,” Bosworth added.
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