Nine months after Connect: Meta overpromised and underdelivered
At the last Meta Connect, Meta announced several new features for Meta Quest. Very few of them have been implemented so far.
The last Meta Connect took place on October 11, 2022, almost nine months ago. On that day, Meta introduced the premium headset Meta Quest Pro. A device that wasn't received very well and was slashed by a third in price a few months after its launch.
On the software side, Meta made a number of big announcements that have yet to materialize:
- A partnership with Microsoft was to bring the Office applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and Windows 11 via cloud streaming to the Meta Quest. According to Meta, these features should have been rolled out in the "coming months".
- The partnership also had something up its sleeve for gamers: support for Xbox Cloud Gaming on Meta Quest. Meta hoped to provide more information "soon," but nothing has been heard in that direction since October.
- Horizon Worlds made little progress this year: the announced web version of Meta's proto-metaverse still hasn't arrived, while the full-body avatars and Youtube VR in Horizon Home are also still missing.
Meta Quest Pro falls short of its potential
Meta Quest Pro has only seen small improvements since launch.
Meta improved the controller tracking, added support for Wi-Fi 6E (half a year after release!) and enabled local dimming for PC VR use. Nothing was heard about significant improvements in the area of face tracking, a unique selling point of the Quest Pro.
The lack of software is one of the main criticisms of the headset, and Meta has done little to change that.
Nearly nine months after the launch of Meta Connect, it is fair to say that Meta has overpromised and underdelivered. That's a problem for a company that sees itself as the spearhead of the VR industry.
The competition is knocking
The fact that things are moving so slowly this year is probably due to several reasons: 2023 is the year of mass layoffs and restructuring for Meta, and it's also the year Meta Quest 3 comes out. The new consumer-oriented VR headset is immensely more important than Quest Pro and will likely take up a lot of resources to get to market.
Still, Meta's mills grind far too slowly, given the billions invested. This has also frustrated John Carmack.
Until now, Meta, the market leader, has been able to take it easy because there was no serious competition. Hopefully, with Apple's entry into the market, that will change. This is good news for us consumers. If anyone can make Meta dance, it's Apple.
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