An Updated Prediction of Meta XR

Two and half weeks ago Lex Fridman interviewed Mark Zuckerberg in the Metaverse. The interview showed the impressive technology in the Quest 3 and revealed more of Zuckerberg’s plan for the future of XR. I want to delve into the Quest 3 and where I see Meta heading in the XR space.

Quest 3

The Quest 3 was released 6 days ago, and it looks extremely promising. The 128GB model comes in at $500 and the 512GB model at $650. It’s worth noting that the higher storage option is $2,850 less than Apple’s Vision Pro which is to be released sometime next year. Quest’s headset offers anywhere from 2.2 to 2.9 hours of battery life depending on the use case with 2.3 hours of charge time. Unlike the Quest 2 whose controllers were rechargeable, the Quest 3’s controllers use AA batteries. According to Meta’s store page, the 2064x2208 pixels per eye is about a 30% increase in resolution over the Quest 2. It appears to be a very capable mixed-reality machine from what I have seen in the limited review footage available online but that is still not its primary focus.

Lex Fridman Interview

The Metaverse interview used high-resolution scans of Mark and Lex’s faces that were then tracked using the Quest 3. While in completely different parts of the world, they were able to feel like they were right next to each other. These two individuals are probably not the best to showcase how well the headset tracks faces as they are not the most expressive individuals, but nonetheless, it was a very impressive demo. During the interview, the two discuss the future of the Metaverse, ethical dilemmas surrounding the technology, and Mark shares some of his vision for what he expects to see in the coming years.

Future of the Meta XR

From the interview and Meta’s latest actions, it looks like Meta will be a lot more focused on mixed reality than VR. With Apple hardly talking about VR, it would make sense that Meta tries to do as much as it can in the MR space to stay competitive with Apple. MR is also more relevant to a wider audience as it caters to people outside the gaming ecosystem. Mark’s comments seemed to hint at this as well. However, Meta’s headsets have been getting more expensive which could turn potential adopters away. I believe they will prevent the lowest model of a new headset from exceeding $500 for the foreseeable future as the Quest Pro failed to get any attention due to its $1200 price tag.

As the Quest 3 develops, I expect that the Quest 1 and older Rift headsets will become less and less useful as more games take advantage of the pass-through offered in the Quest 2/3. This gives me a reason to say goodbye to my Rift S, which has received a fair bit of use over the years, and upgrade.

Zuckerberg’s Comments on XR

Mark’s vision for XR looks a lot more refined and practical than it did a few years ago when many were mocking him for dumping billions into the Metaverse. No longer does the focus appear to be on putting people into the Metaverse but on bringing the Metaverse into the real world. Mark frequently brought up findings about the psychology of mixed reality and how people react to digital environments during the Lex Fridman interview. He also made the bold claim of having some kind of MR glasses on the market in the next five years.

Conclusions

I am excited about Meta’s approach to XR headsets and hope to continue to see them pursue this market with the same fervor that they have had since the acquisition of Oculus. As more companies like Apple start to release consumer-focused XR devices, the space will only become more interesting with competition fostering new ideas and better technology.