So far, Meta has continued its strategy shift - away from clunky all-in-one VR headsets towards lighter wearables with an external battery / compute puck. not officially confirmed. Everything we know about a possible postponement or cancellation of the Quest 4 comes from leaks, analyst notes and media reports. Nevertheless, this change of course paints a consistent picture when you consider Reality Labs' losses, the sluggish Quest 3/-3S sales, the technically only incremental gap to the Quest 2 and the new comfort pressure from Apple Vision Pro & Samsung/Google Project Moohan merged.
Meta Reality Labs reported in the Q1 2025 an operating loss of 4.2 billion US-$ and since 2020 has more than 60 billion US-$ burned. At the same time, the Quest store grew to around 3 billion US-$ Lifetime sales, but each hardware unit remains subsidized.
Although the Quest 3 is flatter and sharper than the Quest 2, it only sold around 1 million units - a fraction of the Quest 2 high-altitude flight. The Quest 3 S did not generate a surge in demand for the 2024 Christmas season despite its 299-dollar price - app downloads even fell by 27 %.
There is a structural problem behind this: the global smartphone replacement cycle is currently around 3.6 yearsAccording to retailer data, it already tends to be four to five years for VR headsets. Unlike with cell phones, hardly anyone replaces their headset every year if the jump is only incremental.
Despite its lower price, Quest 3S was also unable to achieve the sales figures Meta had hoped for
TechRadar reports that the Quest 4 on 2027 was postponed. techradar.com
The Verge reports that Meta has developed the Quest 4 prototypes (Pismo Low/High) in favor of an ultra-light headset with Compute puck (code name Puffin) "set aside". theverge.com
Forbes and other sources paint a similar picture, but emphasize that Meta has neither officially confirmed nor denied the project.
Important: All information comes from anonymous insider sources; Meta has not yet commented on the reports. The company only speaks publicly of "ongoing research into various form factors".
A compute puck is a design with The headset has an outsourced computing and battery unit that transfers the weight, heat and wireless modules from the head to the body; similar to the battery pack of the Apple Vision Pro. Leaks about the "Puffin" headset show that Meta also wants to adopt this principle in VR The Apple Vision Pro packs 353 g of battery into an external pack and sets the display benchmark with its micro OLED displays. Samsung/Google counter with Project Moohanwhich is based on a Exchangeable USB-C battery and Android XR. It would therefore be difficult for Meta to position an all-in-one headset that remains heavy.
The Quest 3 offers 30 % more pixels and pancake optics, but retains the LCD panel and plays the same game library as the Quest 2 - not a good reason to upgrade for many owners. Although the Quest 3S costs less, it falls behind the pancake quality of the more expensive Quest 3 with Fresnel lenses. 160,000 Quest 3S headsets on the Black Friday weekend in 2024, i.e. 16 % less sold than in the previous year.
With over 2 million copies sold and Meta is planning capacities for 10 million units per year from 2026. This is Meta's first demonstration of how XR functions can be translated into a form factor suitable for everyday use.
Meta Horizon OS is the new name of the company previously known as Quest OS operating system of the Quest headsets. It is still based on Android 14/Linux, but has been enhanced with XR-specific services such as pass-through video, hand & eye tracking, spatial anchors and a deeply integrated social layer. Horizon Worlds extended.
In April 2024, Meta announced that it would also license Horizon OS for third-party hardware; the first confirmed partners are ASUS ROG (gaming headset), Lenovo (productivity glasses) and a special "Xbox Edition" device. The aim is to create an open mixed reality ecosystem in which the same binary app can be used on VR headsets (e.g. Quest 3 / Puffin) and on AR glasses (Orion 2025 / Artemis 2027) can run.
The core components for this are:
Spatial App Framework - converts classic mobile UIs into floating 2-D or 3-D panels; developers compile only once.
Horizon Store - Quest Store & App Lab merge to create a marketplace for VR, MR and AR titles on all Horizon OS devices.
Identical companion app - today's Quest smartphone app becomes the "Meta Horizon" app, allowing users to manage headsets and glasses in a single interface.
In short: Horizon OS is intended to be the technical bridge over which Meta's future product family - from the lightweight Orion Viewfinder glasses to the fully-fledged Artemis AR wearable - shares the same software, the same account and the same store. All schedules and device details are based on leaks; Meta itself has so far only officially confirmed the opening and renaming of the operating system.
The market research company International Data Corporation (IDC) expects around nine million pairs of augmented reality (AR) glasses to be sold by 2025, with IDC forecasting a compound annual growth rate (Compound Annual Growth RateCAGR) of 47 percent by 2029 - this means that the AR glasses segment is growing significantly faster than the traditional market for virtual reality (VR) headsets
The possible Quest 4 shift is emblematic of an XR industry that is reinventing itself: less pixel polish, more everyday life. As long as Meta only reveals its strategy indirectly through leaks, any forecast remains subject to reservation - but the figures so far suggest that a lighter, more modular XR is the most logical route back to the profit zone.
No, Meta has none official statement. However, several well-documented leaks (including TechRadar) speak of an internal postponement to 2027 or a complete reorientation towards a lighter headset with a "compute puck" (codename Puffin).
In the 1st quarter of 2025, Realität Labs recorded a Operating loss of US-$ 4.2 billionwhile sales fell by 6 % - mainly due to weak Quest sales.
In parallel, Apple Vision Pro and Samsung's/Google's Project Moohan new comfort standards with external battery.
Together, this increases the pressure to rethink the previous "everything-in-a-case" design.
Yes, Ray-Ban Meta-Glasses have sold well so far. 2 million times; Manufacturer EssilorLuxottica plans to increase capacity to 10 million units per year by 2026.
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