After over a decade, and billions of Dollars poured into it, Meta’s XR (Extended Reality) division — Reality Labs — is still failing to hit net-zero, let alone turn a profit. Competition is increasing as well, prompting the company to end one of the best things that it has ever done for the entire VR industry.
Meta Horizon OS no longer available to others
When Meta made its Horizon OS, known back then as Quest OS, open-source, it was as if Christmas had come early for the industry. Immediately, Lenovo and Asus had jumped at the opportunity, and began work on XR headsets that would run on Meta’s rich operating system.
Meta has now revealed that it has decided to end, or at least pause, that initiative for now. Instead, the company will now double its focus on creating first-party software and hardware that will challenge upcoming projects from Google, Samsung, and Apple.
Meta doesn’t want to empower the competition
As observed in the report above, providing other manufacturers with Horizon OS meant that Meta was empowering its own competitors. Meta continues to sell its VR products at a loss, and it was basically inviting other companies to make a profit off of its hard work, and leave it in the dust.
Furthermore, now that Google’s Android XR is a thing — currently in use by Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset — there is more incentive for Meta to hold its enviable industry experience close to its chest. Other companies are eyeing the XR space that Meta has been building towards for over a decade, and the company now needs every ace up its sleeve that it can reach.
One step back for VR, one giant leap for Meta
Ending the third-party headsets powered by Horizon OS is a bummer for VR enthusiasts, but it makes perfect business sense for Meta. The company is currently working on a consumer version of the Orion smart glasses, as well as the Meta Quest 4 lineup.
Apple is also working on AR smart glasses, and so is Samsung, if reports are to be believed. The Apple Vision Pro and the Galaxy XR, meanwhile, give the Quest headsets some competition, albeit a negligible amount due to their much higher pricing.
Meta, very sensibly, is laying out the battlefield to its advantage before the other players jump in.
