Meta’s expensive flop: An executive reportedly told employees the company won’t make a follow-up to its $1,500 ‘Pro’ VR gadget

• Meta’s chief know-how officer reportedly instructed workers it isn’t making a second Quest Professional headset.
• The $1,499 Quest Professional headset has acquired poor opinions and gross sales, and was pricey for Meta to make.

Meta’s chief know-how officer reportedly instructed workers the corporate will not be planning to make a second Quest Professional headset.

Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth introduced Meta’s resolution to not proceed with its deliberate second-generation Quest Professional virtual-reality headset on the firm’s highway map presentation, Alex Heath of The Verge reported in his Command Line e-newsletter.

The corporate’s $1,499 Quest Professional has received mixed to poor reviews and disappointing gross sales, and was pricey for Meta to develop together with its different headsets. The corporate’s Actuality Labs division saw a $13.7 billion loss in 2022, in line with its fourth-quarter monetary outcomes. Nonetheless, Meta’s Quest 2, which is extra reasonably priced than the Quest Professional, has performed “fairly properly,” in line with CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Heath reported earlier this week that the internal Meta presentation shows the corporate plans to proceed creating three extra Quest headsets over the subsequent 4 years, with a Quest 3 headset set to launch later this 12 months. The headset is anticipated to be thinner however extra highly effective and costly than the Quest 2.

Meta additionally just announced it’s cutting the worth of its Quest 2 and Quest Professional gadgets. The Quest Professional is getting a $500 chop, whereas the 256 GB Quest 2, which is initially $499.99, is being lower to $429.99.

The corporate additionally reportedly plans to proceed developing its AR glasses with controllers that customers can put on on their wrists. Alex Himel, Meta’s vice chairman for AR, introduced a second technology of sensible glasses that Meta launched in collaboration with Ray-Ban’s dad or mum firm Luxottica, are coming this fall. Himel stated a 3rd technology of the sensible glasses will come out in 2025 with a “viewfinder” to see new textual content messages, scan QR codes, and translate languages. Himel additionally confirmed Meta is creating a smartwatch to pair with the glasses, Heath reported.

Meta didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s request for remark and affirmation of the corporate’s future plans.

Regardless of Zuckerberg saying Meta is focusing on “efficiency” throughout the firm’s fourth-quarter earnings name with Wall Avenue analysts in February, Meta CFO Susan Li stated that the corporate is dedicated to its funding in Actuality Labs, and can proceed to see losses in that division this 12 months.

Nonetheless Zuckerberg stated Actuality Labs will still be subject to the corporate’s plans to be extra environment friendly.

“We’re wanting on the indicators and studying what is sensible to do going ahead,” Zuckerberg stated. “We’re continuously shifting how we execute. Different issues like flattening the org construction, these are going to have an effect on the entire firm, each in Actuality Labs and Household of Apps. We would like the work to be extra environment friendly.”

Meta’s pricey push to develop its digital and augmented actuality {hardware} is in an effort to succeed in its targets of making the metaverse the “way forward for the web.”

“I feel persons are going to look again many years from now and speak in regards to the significance of the work that was performed right here,” Zuckerberg has said.