Meta is engaged on a Quest Professional successor once more, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reviews, after reportedly canceling two candidates in recent times.
In his newest report, during which he additionally mentioned that Apple continues to be engaged on microLED shows for AR glasses, Gurman writes: “Meta is engaged on Quest 4 VR goggles, in addition to a brand new high-end mannequin that would ultimately turn into a successor to the Quest Professional“.
Meta executives have repeatedly talked about engaged on “the subsequent Quest”, and final 12 months The Info reported that Quest 4 is arriving in 2026 as two fashions, a funds mannequin and a premium mannequin, codenamed Pismo Low and Pismo Excessive. However the reference to a brand new Quest Professional is puzzling.
Meta Confirms Quest Professional 2 Cancelation & 2027 Ultralight Headset
Meta confirmed to The Verge earlier reporting that it canceled a 2027 Quest Professional 2 candidate and is engaged on an ultralight headset with a puck.
The Info’s report additionally talked about a brand new Quest Professional, arriving in 2027 and codenamed La Jolla, which itself had been spun up after the cancelation of the unique Quest Professional 2 undertaking, a headset that was set for 2024 and codenamed Funston.
However only one month after that report, The Info reported that La Jolla too had been canceled, in favor of a distinct 2027 headset codenamed Puffin, an ultralight design with a tethered compute puck. Then, in October, The Verge’s Alex Heath mentioned that in a dialogue with Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth, the chief confirmed these two reported selections and defined Meta’s method to growing new {hardware}, together with citing the “tepid response” to the unique Quest Professional because the reasoning for canceling La Jolla.
How Does Meta Develop & Cancel {Hardware}?
In line with The Verge’s Alex Heath, Bosworth cited the “tepid response” to the unique Quest Professional because the reasoning for canceling La Jolla. However arguably extra curiously, Bosworth detailed the phases of Meta’s {hardware} growth cycle:
- Pre-Discovery: a devoted staff is at all times “prototyping the craziest stuff”, making a “proof of expertise” for every concept.
- Discovery: a “small quantity” of Pre-Discovery ideas are authorized by govt assessment to proceed to the Discovery part, the place “a couple of” workers look at the practicalities of business design and value.
- Prototyping: if deemed sensible, Discovery ideas are prototyped, involving “perhaps 10 instances extra folks”, who construct built-in {hardware} and software program to deliver the idea to life.
- Engineering Validation Take a look at: “roughly half” of these prototypes go to this remaining stage, the place they’re placed on the product roadmap. Of those EVTs, Meta executives apparently kill “about half” earlier than they ship, whereas the others launch to the general public.
Heath says Bosworth informed him the ultralight headset with a puck, codenamed Puffin, was moved from Pre-Discovery to Discovery. Which means it may nonetheless be killed off in Prototyping or the EVT part.
This makes Gurman’s new reference to “a brand new high-end mannequin that would ultimately turn into a successor to the Quest Professional” all of the extra complicated. Is Gurman referring to Puffin, or to one more new Quest Professional successor undertaking, separate to both La Jolla or Puffin? It is fully unclear, however preserve studying UploadVR as we’ll deliver you information of any future point out of a Quest Professional 2 from dependable sources.
