Meta Connect, the The big developer event and hardware showcase for the company that runs Facebook and Instagram starts today. Meta is likely to show off its new mixed-reality and mixed-reality technology, put a shiny polish on its meandering metaverse ambitions, and delve into all the new ways it plans to squeeze artificial intelligence into every crevice of its devices and services
The event takes place today, Wednesday, September 25th, starting at 10am Pacific Time. The main conference, where most of the news will be announced, will be broadcast live. The event will be hosted by Meta CEO and newly minted cool guy Mark Zuckerberg. Zuck’s hour-long presentation will be followed by a developer-focused address at 11 a.m. led by Meta CTO and Head of Reality Labs Andrew Bosworth. You can watch the events on the Meta Connect website or on the Meta YouTube channel after the event. And yes, you can also watch it in VR on Meta Horizon.
The focus of the event will likely be a fusion of Meta’s mixed reality efforts and its AI ambitions across its entire product line. Like any tech event, there are sure to be surprises. Here are the important things to keep in mind.
Blurred MetaVision
The only thing Meta probably won’t announce is a very expensive VR headset. It’s a move informed by where the mixed reality device market is right now, and whether people really want to spend big to buy into it. Instead, rumors abound about the so-called Meta Quest 3S, a headset that could be a cheaper version. of Meta Quest 3 with lighter features.
Meta was briefly the big boss of the AR/VR space 10 years ago when Meta (then Facebook) bought VR company Oculus. Soon after, Facebook changed its name to Meta and sunk $45 billion into its vision of a digital universe that most people don’t seem to care much about. Workplaces don’t use Meta’s Horizon workspaces as much (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 virtual footing. Apple released its first mixed reality headset, the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro, in February. Since then, the product has been seen as a rarity in error for the company, or at least very clearly a first-generation product not aimed at the masses. The device 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 announcement event on September 9.)
If Vision Pro’s vision had panned out, Meta might have been more inclined to pursue the premium VR headset category. 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 entered the ring against Apple’s Vision Pro. Bosworth, CTO of Meta, responded to this news on Meta’s Threads platform and insisted that the move is not that big, but a natural part of the company’s device iterations. Still, it’s a move that makes sense after the Apple Vision Pro fizzled out.
