Apple Vision Pro, which launched with much hype, is now seeing dialed-down responses, primarily due to its $3,500 price tag and limited content availability. Meta has taken note and has reportedly canceled its plans to announce a high-end XR headset inspired by the Apple Vision Pro, a project that it began working on last year.
Meta allegedly struggled to keep the price of the headset close to the set price of $1,000. Fortunately, if you were anticipating a Meta XR headset, there is some good news. According to Bloomberg"s Mark Gurman, a more affordable version of the Meta Quest 3 XR headset is expected to debut sometime in September.
In his Power On newsletter, Gurman notes that this cheaper version of the Meta Quest 3 headset may be called the Meta Quest 3S. It could be priced somewhere between $300 to $400 range. For comparison, the Meta Quest 3, which launched in June last year, starts at $499 for the 128GB model.
Reportedly, Meta may achieve this price point by selling the controllers separately. However, by selling the controller separately for $100, the total price could come close to the standard Quest 3, making the alleged Meta Quest 3S product irrelevant. Thus, it is speculated that the chances of the controllers not being included in the box are pretty low.
Meta is rumored to announce the Quest 3S at its Connect event, which is happening at its Menlo Park headquarters on September 25 and 26. There are also rumors that Meta could also introduce Google Glass-like AR glasses, codenamed "Orion."
Notably, the AR glasses were spotted last month in an image Zuckerberg had shared earlier this year. Zuckerberg when asked about the launch, revealed that he "will be ready to share more later this year." Meta"s AR glasses are expected to be different from the successful Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, but could have the same concept.