Why the Meta Quest “3S” may be sold in China

The Immersive Wire - 3 June 2024 (Briefing)

Author

Tom Ffiske
June 03, 2024

Executive summary

Welcome to your weekly briefing on the metaverse and spatial computing. Here are your snippets to sound smarter in meetings this week:

  • Headline: Why the Meta Quest “3S” may be sold in China (analysis below)

  • London Event: The Immersive Wire is jointly hosting a networking event in London on 20 June. Come for free snacks and drinks.

  • Tangents: I am starting a new series where I write about what I am passionate about personally. The first edition: Why I hate short-form videos.

  • Other stories: Apple unveiled the Spatial Computing nominees for its Apple Design Awards, and The Zip-Scene Conference on Immersive Storytelling is accepting submissions until 1 July (more stories below).

The Immersive Wire has been nominated for three awards - my thanks to my readers for the support! Please refer the newsletter if you enjoy it; every new subscriber makes my day 🫶

Tom Ffiske, Editor of the Immersive Wire

Analysis

The Meta Quest “3S” may be the official name, according to the Verge and UploadVR. I also suspect it will be sold in China (by drawing two and two together).

  • Why may it be called the 3S? A store listing showcased Quest 3S alongside Quest 3 as potential platforms, likely as an unintended leak.

  • What is it? It is likely the more affordable version of the Quest 3 headset that will be revealed at Meta Connect, then rolled out globally later in the year. Little is known about the device’s specs.

  • So why will it be sold in China? We know that Tencent and Meta struck a deal to sell a VR headset in China in “late 2024.” judging by the timings, I suspect that the Quest “3S” will hit the shelves. This is a big deal; the VR headset market is very price-elastic, so if a cheap and competitive headset wins big in China then it will rapidly grow the number of users globally. But again, it’s an unsubstantiated hypothesis.

Other notable stories

Got any stories? Let me know at tom (at) immersivewire (dot) com.

  • Apple unveiled the Spatial Computing nominees for its Apple Design Awards.

  • ENGAGE XR announced the appointment of Karthik Manimozhi as the Group’s new non-Executive Chairman.

  • The Interactive Haptics Conference is happening 11 - 13 June in Hamburg.

  • Motive.io announced its integration with Lenovo ThinkReality VRX through Snapdragon Spaces.

  • Readyverse Studios gave the Consensus crowd a first look today at The Readyverse.

  • Rendever expanded its partnership with Leisure Care, deploying Rendever to a total of 24 senior living communities.

  • The Zip-Scene Conference on Immersive Storytelling is accepting submissions until 1 July.

Note: The Immersive Wire is run by Tom Ffiske, who also works within Accenture’s metaverse group. The contents of the newsletter should not be regarded as Accenture’s views.