Meta Quest Professional wasn’t actually the prosumer hit it was chalked as much as be, main the corporate to discontinue its first blended actuality headset a little bit over two years after launch. Now Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman studies Meta will not be solely engaged on an ostensible Quest 3 client follow-up, but in addition a “high-end” mannequin that would succeed Quest Professional.
In Gurman’s weekly publication, he rounds up a variety of latest XR information, from Meta presumably together with a show in its subsequent Ray-Ban Meta Sensible Glasses to studies of Apple winding down Imaginative and prescient Professional manufacturing amid decreased demand for the $3,500 headset.
Citing insider sources, Gurman additionally reported that Meta is “engaged on Quest 4 VR goggles, in addition to a brand new high-end mannequin that would ultimately turn into a successor to the Quest Professional mixed-reality headset.”
Launched in late 2022, Quest Professional marked a major departure from Meta’s line of client standalone headsets, which, on the time, ranged across the $300 mark.
Initially priced at $1,500, the ‘Professional’ stage headset supplied a number of options over its concurrent Quest 2, reminiscent of color-passthrough, pancake lenses, and each face and eye-tracking. Lower than 5 months later although, Meta decreased the value of Quest Professional to $1,000 in an effort to draw extra prosumers.
Then, in July 2023, The Data launched a report claiming Meta was discontinuing the Quest Professional line totally, which Meta CTO and Actuality Labs chief Andrew Bosworth was fast to contest, stating “don’t consider every little thing you learn.”
An extra report from The Data from July 2024 recommended Meta was switching its ‘Professional’ efforts to as an alternative develop a light-weight blended actuality system resembling “a cumbersome pair of glasses,” codenamed ‘Puffin’—reportedly set to focus on a 2027 launch date. This comes along with Meta’s declare it’s hoping to launch a pair of AR glasses earlier than 2030 which will likely be related in performance to its Orion AR glasses prototype.
A follow-up report from The Data launched shortly afterwards additional claimed a Quest Professional 2 prototype, codenamed ‘La Jolla’, had additionally been shelved. Bosworth later went on report to substantiate that it certainly cancelled La Jolla, and is creating Puffin, though didn’t make point out of whether or not the corporate was abandoning its Quest Professional line for good.
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Meta’s iterative strategy to product improvement entails spinning up and shutting down prototypes, which Bosworth has outlined prior to now as a approach the corporate prioritizes exploration over speedy commercialization. The place tasks, like Quest Professional 2 and others, at present are on that continuum is a thriller, making it tough to inform whether or not reported stops and begins are literally stepping stones or lifeless ends, respectively.
While refuting the sooner declare that the Quest Professional line was cancelled, Bosworth famous “there is likely to be a Quest Professional 2, there won’t be. I’m not likely telling you, however I’ll say don’t consider every little thing you examine what’s been stopped or began.”
