Meta Connect, the Next week kicks off the company that runs Facebook and Instagram’s big developer event and hardware showcase. Meta is likely to show off its new virtual and mixed reality tech, gloss over its metaverse ambitions, and go into depth about all the new ways it plans to introduce artificial intelligence into every crevice of its devices and services.
He event The event will take place on Wednesday, September 25th starting at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. The keynote address, where most of the news will be announced, will be streamed live. The event will be hosted by Meta CEO and new cool kid Mark Zuckerberg. Zuck’s hour-long presentation will be followed by a developer-focused keynote at 11 a.m. led by Meta CTO and head of Reality Labs Andrew Bosworth. You can watch the events at Meta Connect Website or in Meta YouTube Channel. And yes, you can also see it in Virtual reality in Meta Horizon.
The event will likely focus on a fusion of Meta’s mixed reality efforts and its AI ambitions across its entire product line. As with any tech event, there are bound to be surprises. Here are the top developments to look out for.
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The only thing Meta probably won’t announce is a very expensive VR headset. It’s a decision that depends on the current state of the mixed reality headset market and whether people are actually willing to spend a lot to buy it. Instead, rumors abound about a supposed VR headset. Meta Quest 3Sa headset that could be a cheaper version of the Meta Quest 3 with lighter features.
Ten years ago, Meta was the big fish in the AR/VR space when Meta (then Facebook) bought VR company Oculus. Shortly after, Facebook changed its name to Meta and went under. 45 billion dollars in their vision of a digital universe that most people don’t seem to care much about. Workplaces aren’t using Meta Horizon Workrooms So much so that we’re all still on Zoom, and despite initial bouts of expensive corporate land grabs for digital real estate, users aren’t exactly eager to move into the metaverse.
Other companies have struggled to find their place in the virtual world. Apple launched its first mixed-reality headset, the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro, in February. The product has since been widely regarded as a rare misstep by the company, or at least a clearly first-generation product not intended for the masses. It didn’t sell very well. and was widely criticized for being an expensive, heavy, and ultimately lonely experience. (Apple mentioned the Vision Pro only once, in passing, at its upbeat iPhone unveiling event on Sept. 9.)
Had Vision Pro’s vision panned out, Meta might have been more inclined to pursue the expensive premium category of VR headsets. In August, The Information reported that Meta appears to have abandoned, or at least delayed, plans to reveal an update to its Oculus Quest Pro that would have competed against Apple’s Vision Pro. Bosworth, Meta’s CTO, responded to that news on Meta’s Threads platform and insisted that the change isn’t a big deal, but rather a natural part of the company’s device iterations. Still, it’s a change that makes sense after the failure of the Apple Vision Pro.