Hardware

Published on October 12th, 2022 | by Andrew Bistak

Meta announces Meta Quest Pro, its advanced headset built to expand what’s possible in virtual reality.

Today Mark Zuckerberg at Meta Connect 2022, he took the virtual stage alongside leaders from Reality Labs at Meta and some special guests to showcase the progress made toward that vision over the past year, including a new high-end and advanced VR headset, Meta Quest Pro, and a series of updates and partnerships in the work tech space.

META QUEST PRO

Today during Meta’s annual Connect conference, Mark Zuckerberg  officially announced Meta Quest Pro, a new high-end and advanced VR headset. Meta Quest Pro is the first entry in Meta’s new high-end line of devices, and it’s packed with innovative features like high-res sensors for robust mixed reality experiences, crisp LCD displays for sharp visuals, a completely new and sleeker design, plus eye tracking and Natural Facial Expressions to help your avatar reflect you more naturally in VR.

Meta Quest Pro will be available at $2,449.99 AU. This includes the headset, Meta Quest Touch Pro controllers, stylus tips, partial light blockers, and a charging dock. You can pre-order your Meta Quest Pro on meta.com. With global shipping starting from 25th October.

META WORK TOOLS AND PARTNERSHIPS

But the metaverse won’t be built by one company alone. Mark Zuckerberg was joined by both Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, and Accenture Chair and CEO Julie Sweet, to share new partnerships that will accelerate the future of work:

  • Detailing how Meta Quest Pro was built with work in mind, the partnership with Microsoft is intended to bring its productivity tools to Meta Quest devices and Meta work experiences.
  • This includes Microsoft Teams immersive meeting experiences for Meta Quest, Microsoft Windows 365 for Meta Quest, Microsoft 365 app experiences for Quest, a Microsoft Teams/Workrooms integration, Meta Avatars in Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Intune and Azure Active Directory support for Quest.
  • The partnership with Accenture will help businesses adopt Meta’s hardware and software, integrated with Microsoft tech, so that businesses can bring the future of work to their people sooner.
  • Meta also announced that Quest for Business, its subscription bundle for Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro, that includes essential admin features like device and app management, will be coming next year.
  • Meta also announced a series of new features for Horizon Workrooms, the VR space for teams to connect and collaborate. The new features include more expressive avatars, breakout groups with spatial audio, sticky notes for the whiteboard, a new stylus controller tip for clearer writing and a personal office for individual productivity where you can access large virtual screens and utilize the full-color passthrough mode. Long-term, we hope to launch Magic Room, a Zoom integration and 3D model review.

Aussie developer, PHORIA creates world-first Mixed Reality software show on Meta QSimonuest Pro

  • Melbourne-based studio, PHORIA, was selected by Meta to develop the world’s first web-based mixed reality experience, as part of Meta’s global developer programme at Connect.
  • The experience, Spatial Fusion, acts as a stepping stone for users to learn about and engage with Mixed Reality (MR).
  • In comparison to VR where users are transported into a completely different environment, Mixed Reality passthrough allows people to interact with experiences within their own space. For example, a person will now be able to see their living room through a headset and then drag in whatever they would like to add to that space.
  • We could offer you an interview with Trent Clews de Castella, PHORIA Founder & CEO to talk about this world first innovation coming out of Australia, and putting Australia on the global map for tech talent. Trent is available for interview from Thursday 12 October.
  • See more details here

QUOTES

“ This… is Meta Quest Pro. It’s the first in our new line of advanced headsets, built to expand what’s possible in VR. It takes what people love about Meta Quest 2 and adds a bunch of new technologies to help you do more in the metaverse. It’s made for collaboration and creativity, and with mixed reality built in, it lets you do things that haven’t been possible before. All in a beautiful design that’s comfortable to wear. Whether you’re looking to work in a new way, or you just want the very best experiences available today… this sets the standard.” – Mark Zuckerberg

“So, the main reason that we’re in this space is that we think that VR can be very powerful for social connection and with the Quest Pro, we want to bring more of that into the work context as well, where Microsoft already has some incredibly successful products in the market.”  – Mark Zuckerberg

OTHER NEWS

Alongside these innovation and partnerships announcements, Meta also shared details on the progress its seeing across a growing and evolving VR ecosystem:

  • The VR developer ecosystem is booming. To date, over $1.5 billion has been spent on games and apps in the Meta Quest Store and we revealed a host of new games and fitness experiences to come.
  • Details were shared on the future for Horizon Worlds as well as announcing new social innovations it is working on with the YouTube VR team.
  • Meta also announced the Avatar Store is launching in VR later this year.


About the Author

When he's not trying to save the world, Andrew enjoys travel (although loathes turbulence), going to the movies, reading and being a dad to his two dogs (and now twins) with his wife.


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