Meta has lowered the price of its work-focused mixed reality and virtual reality headset, the Meta Quest Pro, to $999.  The headset costs $1,499.99 so the $500 price cut is quite substantial.

Additionally, the price of the 256G B version of the Quest 2 headset is also being dropped from $499.99 to $429.99.

Meta says it is aiming to create VR hardware that will be “affordable for as many people as possible”.

The company says it is also lowering Quest Pro‘s price to make the tech accessible to more businesses and professionals from across the globe.

Early this week, the company unveiled a hardware roadmap that shows it won’t be pursuing a high-end virtual reality headset for at least a few years. This, perhaps, explains its generous price drop as it might be looking to clear its existing inventory.

Quest Pro
Quest Pro

The Quest Pro price change takes effect from March 5th in both and US and Canada. Elsewhere in the world where the headset is sold, the changes will begin on March 15th.

On the 5th, the Quest 2 headset price drop takes effect in a number of countries including Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Australia, Finland, Italy, Iceland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Japan, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Norway, Taiwan, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.

The Meta Quest Pro was announced in October last year and in spite of being a technically proficient headset with impressive color passthrough/mixed reality functions, face tracking, solid controllers, and powerful hardware, the headset is still a tough sell, not the least because of its $1,500 price tag.

However, the headset has some weaknesses. It has worse software than the Quest 2 and its battery life is disappointing. In spite of its price tag, it still falls below the threshold required to usher in the vaunted next computing paradigm where XR devices will eventually replace personal computers and smartphones.

Meta has been offering promos to ramp up the sales of the work-focused headset. By January, sales had brought prices down to as low as $1,100 although the company is yet to report an uptick in sales.

The sluggish performance of this productivity-focused headset isn’t good news for Meta. The company is hemorrhaging billions of dollars in its XR projects and generating only a fraction of that in revenues.

The 256GB Quest 2 headset has seen a seesawing in its price points. Launched in 2020, it has been the company’s most successful headset, driving its sales into billions of dollars. Its price was jacked up last year as Meta sought to plug in revenue shortfalls but the price increase appears to have affected sales. Meta is now cutting down the price by $70, from $499.99 to $429.99.

However, the situation now gets a little confusing for buyers. There is the 128GB headset version which costs $3-99, just $30 below the $256GB Quest 2 headset which offers twice the storage. It will make sense for consumers to cough up the extra $30 and go for the higher-tier Quest 2 headset version.

The price cut in the Quest which takes it back to $429.99 brings it closer to its original price of $400, where it had an impressive sales performance.

All this happening at a time when we are expecting the successor to the Meta Quest 2 headset, the Meta Quest 3 headset, a few months from now. Meta has previously revealed that the Quest 3 headset will cost slightly more than $400.

The Quest 3 headset is billed as a major improvement over the Quest 2 headset. Its design is considerably thinner than that of the Quest 2 while still packing twice as much computing power.

Meta is likely trying to find a pricing sweet spot that will still be sensible if it is planning to sell the Quest 2 headset as the Quest 3 headset launches. Alternatively, the company may be trying to push the Quest 2 units before that version is entirely replaced by the Quest 3 headset.

Meta will also release a ‘Lite‘ consumer headset at “the most attractive price point” in 2024.

https://virtualrealitytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Pico-4-and-Quest-Pro-600x334.pnghttps://virtualrealitytimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Pico-4-and-Quest-Pro-150x90.pngRob GrantBusinessMeta has lowered the price of its work-focused mixed reality and virtual reality headset, the Meta Quest Pro, to $999.  The headset costs $1,499.99 so the $500 price cut is quite substantial. Additionally, the price of the 256G B version of the Quest 2 headset is also being dropped from...VR, Oculus Rift, and Metaverse News - Cryptocurrency, Adult, Sex, Porn, XXX