It appears Meta has decided to cancel a high-end mixed reality headset it had in development (possibly a successor to the Meta Quest Pro) due in part to the lukewarm sales performance of the Apple Vision Pro.
That's according to Meta sources speaking to The Information (via The Verge). The device, codenamed internally as La Jolla (a suburb of California), was previously thought to be on the market in 2027.
Andrew Bosworth, Meta's chief technology officer, posted about the report and said the company has “a lot of prototypes in development at any given time” and that decisions like this are common. “We move forward with some, we pass on others,” Bosworth said.
From this, it seems that Meta remains committed to VR, AR, and mixed reality devices more broadly, and in fact we're expecting to see another reasonably affordable headset launch next month in the form of the Meta Quest 3S.
Cost reduction
Part of the reason for the cancellation, The Information reported, is that the headset used expensive micro-OLED displays, making it very difficult to hit the sub-$1,000 price point (that's around £755/AU$1,470).
However, it also seems that consumer reaction to the $3,499, £3,499 or AU$5,999 Vision Pro played a role in the decision. Even people who buy Apple's headphones tend to return them, and there have been reports that development of the Vision Pro 2 has been halted.
The device in question could be the Meta Quest Pro 2 – it’s a device we haven’t heard much about, but there has been talk that LG may have been involved in manufacturing its OLED displays. The La Jolla codename has also appeared in rumors before.
Another factor that may have influenced the decision is the lack of success of the $999.99 / £999.99 / AU$1,729.99 Meta Quest Pro, at least compared to the cheaper Meta Quest 3, which has found a considerable following.
