Meta reveals VR headset designed for business

Today Meta has announced a new VR headset designed for business, Meta Quest Pro.

At the annual Meta Connect conference, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the new device, alongside Quest for Business, a subscription bundle for Meta Quest Pro and the Meta Quest 2.

Zuckerberg told audiences that the device is designed for collaboration and creativity, in both virtual and mixed reality.

“We’re in a moment now where a lot of the technologies that will power the metaverse are starting to take off. There are more people in VR than ever before, more creators building worlds, more developers building apps, more brands getting into virtual goods and more companies getting into the metaverse,” said Zuckerberg.

“Like a lot of companies, we’re planning for a future where work is more distributed. But as in person work ramps up, we want everyone to have the ability to feel like they’re present, even if they’re not physically there.”

Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s CTO and the head of Reality Labs said that businesses are using VR to collaborate on projects as well as to plan large scale in-person events.

“It’s a whole new kind of creative tool. Puma and New Balance have been designing shoes in VR using Gravity Sketch, one of my favourite 3D design apps on Quest 2. Novartis uses Nano, a VR molecular design and collaboration app in their drug discovery workflow. And ITC, a part of the United Nations are running trainings and workshops in Arthur, our virtual office space on Quest 2,” said Bosworth.

According to Zuckerberg, while the company is investing in the metaverse as a core part of its business proposition, they don’t expect to build it alone.

“The main reason that we're in this space is that we think that VR can be very powerful for social connection and with the Quest Pro, we want to bring more of that into the work context as well, where Microsoft already has some incredibly successful products in the market,” said Zuckerberg.

Meta has partnered with Microsoft to bring their productivity tools to Meta Quest devices, including Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Windows 365 with app and avatar integrations.

Meta has also partnered with Accenture in order to assist businesses in the transition to delivering work in the metaverse, and adopting the VR hardware and software.

“Virtual reality isn’t some obscure hobby anymore. Millions of people use it to play games, work out, collaborate or just have fun. Everyone from new indie developers to the most established tech companies are getting into this space,” he said.