March 3 (Reuters) – Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) reduce the costs of its digital actuality headsets in hopes of stirring demand for its VR {hardware}, as its daring bets on the metaverse have struggled to make a giant splash.
Its flagship Meta Quest Professional will retail for $999, down from its launch value of $1,499, and Quest 2 256 GB model for $429 from $499, Chief Govt Mark Zuckerberg stated in a broadcast on its social media platform Instagram on Friday.
The corporate known as out decrease Quest 2 gross sales as the rationale behind a 17% drop in fourth-quarter income at its Actuality Labs unit, which incorporates VR-related choices.
The division misplaced $13.7 billion final 12 months and over $10 billion in 2021.
Meta is dealing with warmth from buyers for pouring cash into metaverse that has not reaped advantages as anticipated.
Late final 12 months, the corporate launched Quest Professional, positioning it as its most-advanced VR headset with capabilities to push the use-cases additional.
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Quest Professional, with its outward-facing cameras that seize 3D livestream of the bodily setting and permit novelties like the power to hold digital work on a real-world wall, was geared toward designers, architects and different artistic professionals.
Meta has of late sobered its stand on the metaverse and is specializing in saving prices. The corporate known as 2023 because the “12 months of Effectivity” and projected billions in cuts to its spends this 12 months.
Whereas VR headsets have added extra superior capabilities of late, their adoption outdoors of the gaming neighborhood has been sluggish.
Final month, Tencent, the world's largest online game writer, shelved plans to enterprise into VR {hardware}, whereas it has been in talks to distribute Meta Quest line of merchandise in China.
Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Modifying by Shinjini Ganguli
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