Meta has just announced that Meta Connect 2022 will take place on October 11, and we finally get a look at its upcoming VR headset: Project Cambria.
While this year's Meta Connect might not be as exciting as last year's event, in which the company announced its bold metaverse ambitions and changed its name from Facebook, it should give us a better look at Meta's Oculus Quest 2 successor. , the so-called Project Cambria Virtual Reality Headset.
It's worth noting that while Meta hasn't explicitly said that Cambria, which will likely be officially called Quest Pro, will be around, it's been heavily hinted at.
For starters, at Connect Meta 2021, we promised that we would see the Cambria launch in 2022, which is only a few months from the end; Combined with this year's show's (opens in a new tab) promise to give contestants "a glimpse of what's to come in the near and far future" for their metaverse ambitions and we can safely assume that Cambria will have time. on the stage.
But that is not all. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that we'll see Meta's "next VR headset" in October when it appears at the Joe Rogan Experience; in addition to a post on Zuckerberg's Facebook page (opens in a new tab) saying "See you at Meta Connect on October 11," we see him wearing a dark VR headset that looks nothing like Quest 2, but it looks a lot like the Cambria Meta Project Render shared in 2021.
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(Image credit: Mark Zuckerberg)Image 1 of 2
So we're pretty much guaranteed to see Meta show off its upcoming VR headset at the October event. But will Apple get ahead of the coup?
(*2*)Analysis: Is Apple's VR headset coming later today?As of this writing, we're only hours away from Apple's next event, which will almost certainly be the iPhone 14 launch party.
But beyond Apple's new best smartphone, we'll also likely see the highly anticipated Apple Watch 8 and AirPods Pro 2 gaining time on the stage. That would be all?
Apple has also (not so much) been secretly working on its own VR headset, what we're creatively calling the Apple VR Headset, and some are hoping we'll finally get to see it announced today. Since Apple's and Meta's upcoming VR headsets ostensibly target the same demographics—people looking for high-end VR and AR experiences that aren't constrained by higher headset costs—it would make sense for Apple to want to Get ahead of Meta and start generating hype before Meta can steal the show.
Unfortunately, that probably won't be the case; Today's event will be all about the iPhone 14.
Although these are just our speculations, there are some points of support. First, most rumors point to a 2023 release for the Apple VR headset. Apple tends to announce and launch its products relatively quickly, so it's unlikely to announce the headphones today and wait several months before they go on sale.
Plus, with the iPhone being such an important cog in Apple's machine, you don't want to risk upstage today's announcement with a headphone reveal. The headset is pretty unique in terms of Apple devices and will almost certainly outshine any product it launches with. The iPhone 14 and the VR headset would only cannibalize each other in terms of media coverage, which could result in one or both devices not getting as much time as the spotlight they need.
Instead, we'll likely have to wait until October for new VR headsets to be revealed when Meta unveils Project Cambria.
After that, it'll be a race between Apple, Sony (with its PlayStation VR 2 headset), and ByteDance, with its rumored Pico 4 and Pico 4 Pro.