Is This a Preview of Meta’s MR Headset, Before Connect ’24? – XR Today

Over the weekend, reports from social media sites like Reddit and X shared images and details of the upcoming Quest 3s MR title. The news comes ahead of Meta Connect 2024 as the firm is about to reveal more details about its flexible technology portfolio.

According to the leakers, the Meta will launch what appears to be a new MR model based on the leaked images. Other leaked details reveal that the headset will feature features such as a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR Gen 2 chipset, a single fast 1832 x 1920 LCD per monitor, a 90/120 Hz refresh rate, lenses of fresnel with 3-position IPD/IA. adjustment, Meta Quest 2-style spacer glasses, 4 IR tracking cameras, two 4MP RGB passthrough cameras, 2 IR illuminators, inside-out body tracking, and Touch Plus controllers.

Meta has not revealed the price of the device; however, it is expected to be lower than the company’s previous MR products.

The news comes just a month before Meta Connect 2024. Meta will showcase the latest digital solutions from its social media and XR portfolio on September 25-26, 2024. Connect is the event where Meta revealing deep history through its XR map, among other things. Meta has not revealed many details about the event, but it is expected to feature different times, technologies and speakers, including. CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Interestingly, however, the latest leak of the Quest 3s reveals an annual trend around Meta Connect, where every year, the company’s expected headset announcement is topped by a buzz. Social media in the weeks leading up to the event.

Last year, a Twitter user showed a Quest 3 unboxing ahead of Connect 2023, marking a series of headset leaks ahead of that year’s show. Additionally, in 2022, Meta Quest Pro was leaked online before Connect 2022 when someone left the device in a hotel room.

Meta seems to have suffered from frequent leaks before Connect, a marketing ploy, or is Meta just too open about information about the development of its devices?

What’s Next for Meta in Connect 2024?

The upcoming event is expected to showcase the anticipated Quest 3s, but Meta also has various other XR initiatives in the works, including smart glasses and headsets. During SIGGRAPH 2024, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed Meta’s future plans for XR and the role of AI in technology.

Zuckerberg stressed that Meta’s use of AI, LLMs, and XR enables the company to create an open environment, which differentiates its XR investments. With companies like Samsung showing interest in the XR space, their existing ecosystem could improve the capabilities of the new Meta devices.

Zuckerberg believes that XR devices will not fully replace traditional devices such as smartphones or laptops. Speaking about future XR devices, Zuckerberg said, “When we think about the next computing platform, we divide it into mixed reality, headsets and smart glasses.”

During the recent Big XR News Show, Cam Stevens, CEO and Principal Consultant at Pocketknife Group, discussed Meta’s broader ecosystem and explained how competitors have an advantage because of their resource environment.

Stevens noted:

Meta doesn’t have ecosystem number 1, but it does have a reputation. Unfortunately, in business, they have a reputation whether you like it or not. Having said that, perhaps what is detracting from that reputation would be things like the Llama LLM which is still doing very well. Where people use Llama over Gemini or CoPilot/OpenAI, the main types of languages. Perhaps Llama will be the one to break through as a business player that brings people together.

Since their release in October last year, the latest Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have seen an increase in sales compared to the previous model. This has led to reports that Meta is in talks to acquire a 5 percent stake in Ray-Ban owner EssilorLuxottica. According to LSEG data, Reuters estimated that the number could be worth $ 4.73 billion, considering the company’s total value of more than $ 94 billion.