Meta Platforms Inc. has announced the release of a Quest 3 headset that it hopes will see off competition from Apple.
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Meta stock fell on the day, but largely due to the pressure on the Nasdaq index. The shares will now look to hold the $300 level or risk further losses.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the product at the company’s virtual Meta Connect event. The new headset will start at $500 and is a complete redesign of earlier models. The Quest 3, first announced in June, will seek to fend off competition from tech rival Apple, which announced its $3,500 headset earlier in the year.
Meta also has plans in the pipeline for smart glasses and a smartwatch, meaning the two firms will become more closely aligned as competitors.
To get ahead of the Apple release of the Vision Pro, Zuckerberg teased Meta Quest 3 just days before the big announcement. However, the two companies had a tense relationship before Apple’s entry into the market. Last February, Meta said it would take a $10 billion hit in 2022 from Apple’s move to limit the ability of apps like Facebook to collect data for targeted ads. That could lead to a larger tech war between the firms.
The Meta Quest virtual library will be fully accessible with Quest 3, which now hosts a VR-friendly Roblox, released Wednesday, and will add XBox cloud gaming in December, which will give gamers the chance to play titles like Halo and Minecraft on a large screen anywhere.
Morgan Stanley analysts said Apple’s Vision Pro was a “moonshot” effort following its June announcement, saying the product “has the potential to become Apple’s next compute platform,” but that the company has “much to prove” before the official launch next year.
