July 23, 2012 – According to a recent report from The Information, Meta has stopped production of the Quest Pro and canceled plans for future “Pro” series XR hardware. However, Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth has denied the claims, saying “Don’t believe everything you read.”
The Quest Pro is a $1,000 (currently around RMB 7,180) mixed reality headset from Meta, aimed at professionals, offering a high-performance and high-resolution virtual reality experience. The product, which launched in October 2022, was initially priced at $1,500 but dropped in price by $500 just a few months later. Meanwhile, the Quest 2, a virtual reality headset aimed at the average consumer, has gone through a number of price changes, ranging from $300 to $400.
According to The Information, Meta has stopped ordering new parts for the Quest Pro from its suppliers and has suspended development of the entire “Pro” line, meaning that the company is unlikely to release a second-generation Quest Pro headset. However, Bosworth refuted that claim in an Instagram Stories post yesterday, saying that his team is working on multiple prototype headsets in parallel for all of its projects, with no certainty as to which will become the final product. He implied that The Information’s information came from an employee who was unhappy that his project had been axed.
I have to explain this every year,” Bosworth said. There was no Quest Pro 2 as a headset until we decided there was. I mean, there were a lot of prototype head units — a lot of them — that were in parallel development. Some of them we’d say, ‘This isn’t right,’ and then we’d shut down the project. Some of them we’ll say, ‘This one’s right,’ and then we’ll accelerate development. What you need to understand is that there’s no name for it until it’s officially launched. So there may or may not be a Quest Pro 2. Don’t believe what you read about what’s been stopped or started, a lot of times it comes from someone who’s not happy that their particular project got the axe and other projects didn’t.”
Nonetheless, Quest Pro has been less than stellar from the start. The product never clearly defined its raison d’etre, and the company vaguely positioned it as a workstation for professionals. In reality, Quest Pro is more of a developer’s kit for studios looking to develop consumer apps for the cheaper Quest 3, which will launch in autumn 2023 for $500. In the meantime, Quest Pro users have reported a number of usability issues since its release, giving the impression that it’s not as ready for the market as the company had hoped.
