Meta’s next VR headset, the Quest Pro, costs more than three times the price of the company’s 2-year-old Quest 2 headset. But the follow-up Quest 3 headset won’t be nearly as expensive.
In an interview with Stratechery’s Ben Thompson, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that the Quest 3’s expected price will fall right in line with where the Quest 2 headset is at. “It’s not this year, but there will be a Quest 3 and that’s in the price range of $300, $400 or $500, that zone,” Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg justified the Quest Pro price as being like a computer. “High-end professionals and knowledge workers are willing to pay $1,500 for a laptop, $2,000 for a laptop for your workstation, and that basically gives us the ability to build in a lot of technology there, and also improve that technology and build out the development ecosystem before we can get that down to the price point that’ll fit with consumers.”
While the Quest 3 wasn’t discussed or announced at this year’s Meta Connect VR/AR developer conference where the Quest Pro was revealed, it’s expected to arrive next year — roughly three years after the Quest 2 debuted.
The Quest 2 headset’s price, even after its $101 bump earlier this year, is subsidized to be lower than a product like that would likely normally cost. But that may be the necessary price range for mainstream interest in VR to continue. TikTok parent company ByteDance’s VR headset competitor, the Pico 4, undercuts the Quest 2 price a bit while offering step-up hardware features like color passthrough cameras. It’s a sign, perhaps, that Meta may see more lower-priced VR headset competition in the next year or two, even though expected headsets from Apple and others probably still won’t be cheap.
Watch this:
I Used Meta Quest Pro: Here’s What It’s Like
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