Meta Allegedly Developing a Premium Quest Pro Successor Alongside Quest 4

Meta Quest Pro didn’t quite make the splash that everyone expected in the prosumer world, leading Meta to pull the plug on its first mixed reality headset just over two years after its debut. According to Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, Meta isn’t resting on its laurels; they’re not only working on a Quest 3 model for the regular consumer but also planning a “high-end” model that could potentially follow in the footsteps of the Quest Pro.

In his weekly newsletter, Gurman gives us a whirlwind tour of the latest XR buzz. There’s chatter about Meta possibly sticking a display in the next generation of Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, and there’s also some juicy gossip about Apple slowing down production of their $3,500 Vision Pro headset due to dwindling demand.

Drawing on insider info, Gurman shares that Meta is hard at work on Quest 4 VR goggles and a fresh high-end model that might eventually take over from the Quest Pro mixed-reality headset.

Back when it launched in late 2022, the Quest Pro was a bold departure from Meta’s usual lineup of standalone headsets, which usually hovered around the $300 price point.

The Pro-level headset came out with a hefty price tag of $1,500, offering a slew of upgrades over the Quest 2, such as color-passthrough, pancake lenses, and features like face and eye-tracking. But not too long after, in less than five months, Meta slashed the price to $1,000 in a bid to reel in more prosumers.

Fast forward to July 2023, a report from The Information claimed that Meta was throwing in the towel on the Quest Pro line entirely. But Meta’s CTO and Reality Labs boss Andrew Bosworth wasn’t having it, urging everyone to take such news with a grain of salt.

Another report from The Information in July 2024 suggested Meta was pivoting its ‘Pro’ efforts towards crafting a light mixed reality setup resembling a “bulky pair of glasses,” codenamed ‘Puffin,’ aiming for a 2027 launch. This is alongside Meta’s ambition to roll out a pair of AR glasses by 2030, somewhat akin to its Orion AR glasses prototype.

Shortly after, a follow-up from The Information added claims that a Quest Pro 2 prototype, codenamed ‘La Jolla,’ had been shelved. Bosworth then confirmed that while La Jolla was indeed canceled, Puffin was underway, but he didn’t confirm whether the Quest Pro series was entirely axed.

Meta’s development strategy seems to involve a lot of starting and stopping, with prototypes being both launched and shuttered. As Bosworth has outlined, this approach allows the company to focus on exploring technologies rather than commercializing them straight away. It’s a bit of a guessing game where these projects stand at any moment, making it tough to clearly pinpoint whether these moves are really developmental steps or just reaching a dead end.

While refuting claims about the cancellation of the Quest Pro lineup, Bosworth cryptically commented, “there might be a Quest Pro 2, there might not be. I’m not really telling you, but I will say don’t believe everything you read about what’s been stopped or started.”