#News

Date: April 23, 2024

Meta has formed a strategic agreement with competitors like Microsoft to share its Quest headset’s Operating System to extend VR and MR influence.

The race to be the top product innovator and service provider is now turning into a rally race, with competitors becoming teammates. Such a move recently surfaced online when Meta formed an official agreement with its competitor Microsoft to share its technology. Meta’s Quest OS is one of the first headset operating systems in the world, providing maximum output for a diverse set of functions, including capabilities like gesture recognition, passthrough, scene understanding, and spatial anchors to the devices that run on it.

The tech giant has rebranded its in-house Quest OS to Meta Horizon OS. The social media company has tied the knot of partnership with the leading computing hardware makers ASUS and Lenovo. This partnership will allow both companies to develop devices tailored for particular activities enabled by Meta. 

Meta is also utilizing the Meta Horizon OS to build a limited edition version of the Quest headset. According to the company's official statement, the innovative headset is inspired by Microsoft's Xbox gaming console. This move underscores Meta’s commitment to develop and own exclusive computational capabilities. Mark Zuckerberg aims to own the best technology around Virtual and Mixed Reality devices, similar to Aplhabet Inc.’s dominance in the smartphone market through Android OS.

Meta Horizon OS is based on Android, and one of the key beneficiaries of the development is Google itself. Mark Zuckerberg posted a video showcasing the preview examples of specialized headsets and their use cases in personal and professional aspects. The video also highlighted how Meta’s third-party device makers can utilize the OS to build lightweight devices with sweat-wicking materials for exercise, an immersive high-resolution one for entertainment and another equipped with sensation-inducing haptics for gaming.

Apart from Meta, big tech players like ASUS’ Republic of Gamers and Lenovo are also tapping into the potential of VR and MR devices. While ASUS is developing a gaming headset, Lenovo is progressing towards the development of MR devices for productivity, learning, and entertainment. Apple’s latest introduction of the Vision Pro is putting more pressure on Meta to spring back into action and take back the leader stance in this domain.

By Arpit Dubey

Arpit is a dreamer, wanderer, and a tech nerd who loves to jot down tech musings and updates. With a logician mind, he is always chasing sunrises and tech advancements while secretly preparing for the robot uprising.