Update: Meta’s moved the start time by 30 minutes to 10:30AM PT/1:30 PM ET. No explanation why, but the sun’s blazing on the presentation area, and crowds are milling about. If you’re virtual, you have a few options for watching. The most accessible appears to be Meta’s developers page. (Original article continues below.)
Meta’s annual Connect conference kicks off with a keynote tomorrow, September 27, at 10 AM PT/1 PM ET. Facebook’s parent is expected to make the Meta Quest 3 the centerpiece of the event. The latest version of the headset arrives three years after its predecessor and a little less than a year since the company unveiled the Quest Pro — a mixed-reality headset aimed at enterprise users.
While companies like Magic Leap have pivoted the entirety of their focus to corporate training and prototyping, Meta is still extremely invested in consumer. Gaming (and to a far lesser extent the metaverse) is where the social media giant has found the most luck. While VR/AR haven’t been the rousing success Mark Zuckerberg et al. have been hoping for, Meta has a significant headstart ahead of the rest of the industry (excepting maybe Vive and PlayStation VR).
Zuck personally teased the Meta Quest 3 on Instagram several weeks ago, calling it, “The first mainstream headset with high-res color mixed reality,” adding that it is, “40% thinner and more comfortable [than the Quest 2]. Better displays and resolution. Next gen Qualcomm chipset with 2x the graphics performance. Our most powerful headset yet.”
He also went ahead and revealed the $499 price. The company is no doubt going to be pushing the price point that dramatically undercuts the Magic Leap 2 ($3,299) and its own Quest Pro ($1,000) — not to mention the 800-pound gorilla, Apple’s $3,499 Vision Pro.
We’ll be on the ground at the event in Menlo Park, posting the news. If you want to follow along live, your best bet is bookmarking Meta’s Facebook page (Facebook’s Meta page?). The company will be livestreaming the keynote over there. And, of course, keep it locked into TechCrunch for the latest.
