Meta and LG to “accelerate” the former company’s augmented reality (XR) business. What exactly does this mean? We don’t know, but Meta’s current VR/XR business is pretty strong
LG says the main goal of the partnership is to “combine the strengths of both companies across products, content, services and platforms to drive innovation in customer experiences in the evolving virtual space.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited LG’s headquarters in Seoul to announce the partnership. During this visit, LG CEO William Cho tested the Quest 3 and the recently released Business leaders discussed “business strategies and considerations for next-generation XR device development.” LG’s CEO seemed particularly interested in the Meta’s wide range of models and potential.
As mentioned above, we don’t know exactly what this partnership will entail. LG said it hopes to bring together a “Meta platform with its own content/service capabilities” from its TV business. It sounds pretty boring, but LG also says the partnership will combine “various key technological elements of the Meta with LG’s advanced product and quality capabilities.”
This leads to the lenticular elephant in the room. The Meta XR and VR devices require a display, and LG makes the displays. It can be that simple. After all, even Apple relied on Sony for micro-OLED displays
The news comes after LG created a dedicated XR business unit last year to “accelerate the pursuit of new initiatives in the virtual space arena.” This has led to rumors that the company plans to launch its own VR/XR headset, which could still happen.
