Meta has officially terminated the development of its virtual reality headgear, codenamed La Jolla, due to issues with cost and market viability. This move is the result of the company re-evaluating its strategy in comparison to its upscale rivals like Apple's Vision Pro, which has had difficulty breaking through the market.
The La Jolla headgear, which was originally scheduled to be released in 2027, was to directly compete with Apple's USD 3,500 Vision Pro by combining superior Micro OLED screens. The high production costs of OLED displays made it difficult for Meta to reach its pricing target of keeping the gadget under USD 1,000. Given the Vision Pro's poor sales record, it can be deciphered that the high-end VR market may not support many premium headsets.
"We have many prototypes in development at all times," said Andrew Bosworth, Meta's Chief Technology Officer, responding to the cancellation on Threads. “Just your regularly scheduled public service announcement: we have many prototypes in development at all times. But we don't bring all of them to production. We move forward with some; we pass on others. Decisions like this happen all the time, and stories based on chatter about one individual decision will never give the real picture,” he posted.
Meta is still in the process of extending its VR and AR capabilities, despite this setback. The company is currently creating a more affordable VR headgear, named Ventura, which is planned to release later this year. Meta is also preparing to debut new augmented reality glasses next month and hopes to release the Quest 4 by 2026.
The abandonment of the La Jolla project reflects upon the hurdles that companies confront in the nascent VR and AR sectors, where high costs and user adoption rates are important to the success of new products while achieving prices that could cater to customer preferences is difficult when dealing with expensive technologies.
Since its release, fewer units of Apple's Vision Pro have been sold than anticipated, posing serious sales issues. Even among devoted consumers, the USD 3,500 price tag and its complex "spatial computer" concept have limited its popularity.
However, as per media reports, Apple may be changing its plans for the Vision Pro headset and abandoning plans for a new high-end variant. Rather than that, the company is concentrating on lowering the cost of the parts for its existing Vision Pro and developing a less expensive headset. It is expected that this new, cost-effective model will be available by the end of 2025 and is intended to increase the product’s market appeal.
