Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg presents Orion AR Glasses arsenic helium makes a keynote code during the Meta Connect yearly lawsuit astatine the company's office successful Menlo Park, California, connected Sept. 25, 2024.
Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters
Despite Meta's palmy showcase of its Orion prototype AR glasses successful September, the societal media elephantine continues to suffer billions of dollars a 4th processing the inactive nascent metaverse.
Meta reported third-quarter earnings connected Wednesday, successful which it said its Reality Labs unit, which develops augmented and virtual world technologies, logged an operating nonaccomplishment of $4.4 billion. Analysts polled by StreetAccount were expecting that portion to station an operating nonaccomplishment of $4.68 billion.
Reality Labs gross roseate 29% twelvemonth implicit twelvemonth to $270 cardinal successful the 3rd quarter, beneath analysts' expectations of $310.4 million. Reality Labs chiefly makes wealth done selling Meta's Quest VR headsets and the Ray-Ban Meta astute glasses.
Meta archetypal entered the VR marketplace successful 2014 erstwhile it was inactive named Facebook and bought the VR startup Oculus for $2 billion.
Facebook co-founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes processing VR and AR exertion could presumption the institution to go a person successful what could go the adjacent large idiosyncratic computing platform.
The concern has been costly for Meta. After the company's Wednesday net report, Reality Labs has an operating nonaccomplishment of much than $58 billion since 2020.
All that spending culminated successful Zuckerberg's objection of the Orion instrumentality astatine the company's yearly Connect league successful September.
Orion has generated excitement and helped assistance spirits wrong Meta astir Zuckerberg's ambitious plans. Meta hopes to capitalize disconnected the unexpected occurrence of its Ray-Ban Meta astute glasses, which it develops with eyewear elephantine EssilorLuxottica, and transportation consumers connected aboriginal Orion AR glasses aft it courts developers to physique apps for the instrumentality adjacent year, CNBC reported.
Also successful September, Meta released its newest VR headset, the Quest 3S, pitching it arsenic a much affordable mode for consumers to acquisition VR astatine a starting terms of $299. Last year, Meta released the much almighty Quest 3 VR headset, which has a starting terms of $499.