Meta’s AR and VR Roadmap: A Look at Future Hardware Releases

Meta’s Reality Labs division presented the details of the AR and VR roadmap to thousands of employees, The Verge reported. Meta plans to continue investing in consumer hardware, despite a series of setbacks and broader cost-cutting measures throughout the company. The company is set to release a range of new devices, including smart glasses and a series of advanced VR headsets over the next few years. 

Meta has revealed its plans to release its first smart glasses and a neural interface smartwatch in 2025. The company is also launching its first full-fledged AR glasses in 2027, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicts will be as ubiquitous as smartphones. Scheduled to hit the market in the autumn of 2023, the second iteration of Ray-Ban Stories camera and audio glasses will be the first AR-related device to be launched.

In 2022, Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s head of technology, announced the impending release of the successor to the Meta Quest 2 in 2023. Although they didn’t disclose the name of the device, it’s likely to be titled the Meta Quest 3.

The upcoming Meta Quest 3 is expected to have a more advanced mixed reality experience similar to that of the Meta Quest Pro, along with improvements in form and processing power. However, the Meta Quest 3 will also have a higher price than its predecessor, the Meta Quest 2. Mark Rabkin, Meta’s vice president of VR, stated that the next iteration of the Meta Quest will target VR enthusiasts instead of the general consumer market.

Rabkin also revealed that there are 41 new apps and games planned for release on the Quest 3, which include new mixed reality experiences that leverage the enhanced hardware.

In 2024, Meta plans to launch a new headset called “Ventura,” which Rabkin claims will be more accessible to the general public. He added that the primary aim of this headset is to deliver the most significant impact at the most appealing price point in the VR consumer market.

Meta’s hardware plans also include a new headset, “La Jolla,” which is expected to be a possible successor to the premium Meta Quest Pro headset. However, the device’s launch is still a long way off and will only happen after the release of Ventura. La Jolla is rumored to support Codec Avatars, a futuristic VR conferencing technology that Meta has been working on for many years. According to Mark Zuckerberg, Codec Avatars could become a “killer app” in the VR space.

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