Meta has reportedly cancelled its Apple Vision Pro competitor, still focusing on AR VR

Ever since the launch of the Apple Vision Pro headset, Meta has had plans to bring a mixed-reality headset that gives neck-and-neck competition to it. However, the plan was shelved and now it’s reportedly been cancelled. A report suggests that Meta told Reality Labs employees to stop working on an upcoming mixed-reality headset that was supposed to be a promising contender in the AR VR race.

Meta’s Vision Pro competitor was promising

According to The Information, the Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg told employees at Reality Labs to cancel the product after a product review meeting. That’s unfortunate as it will leave Vision Pro one of the strongest mixed reality products in the regions it’s available. Note that the availability of Vision Pro is still a concern as it’s not available everywhere.

The upcoming Meta headset, which is now reportedly cancelled could have been shipped to most regions. This headset was internally called “La Jolla” and was said to be released in 2027. The device was said to have promising hardware with crisp micro OLED displays like the Vision Pro. But these OLED panels aren’t cheap and that’s why the pricing was going way above.

Meta wanted the device to be under $1,000 (Rs 83,800), whereas, the Vision Pro costs $3,500 (Rs 11,30,400), indeed the hardware is expensive here. However, the Quest Pro was ridiculed for being priced at $1,500 (Rs 1,25,700), and that’s why Meta probably wanted this upcoming contender to be slightly affordable.

While not confirmed, pricing could be the reason for the product being killed. However, nothing is confirmed right now and this is just a report we are referring to. That said, we’ll have to wait for an official announcement.

Thankfully, we won’t have to wait too long as the Meta Connect event is set for September 25, that’s when we can expect to hear new announcements. Meta is reportedly planning to showcase the AR glasses it’s working on.

What about the Meta-Jio headset?

Do note that Jio was also recently reported to work in partnership with Reliance Jio for a cheaper Horizon OS headset. The partnership will grant a license to Jio for Meta’s XR software, making an affordable VR headset available in the country. This is again from a report and we’ll have to wait to know more.