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Meta has announced it's opening up the operating system powering Meta Quest devices to third-party hardware manufacturers starting with Asus, Lenovo, and Xbox, giving more choice to users and a larger ecosystem for developers to build for.
Image Credits: Meta
The company's blog post shared on Monday reveals that Meta's operating system Meta Horizon OS will work on devices beyond Meta Quest, starting with the first three partners: Asus, Lenovo, and Xbox.
As Meta explained, the growth of the mixed reality market and the rising popularity of various use cases have created new opportunities for specialized hardware, and Meta believes that users benefit best from a broad hardware ecosystem producing devices for multiple purposes while running on a common platform.
This marks a major shift in the company strategy, moving away from Apple's closed model and, inspired by the PC industry, Meta Horizon OS will provide developers with technology, social layer, and other frameworks for third-party headset manufacturers.
Image Credits: Meta
Currently, the mixed reality market offers solutions for gaming, entertainment, fitness, and more. According to Meta, the three leading global technology companies are already working on new devices built on Meta Horizon OS: Asus is going to use its expertise in gaming-related solutions to develop "an all-new performance gaming headset", Lenovo will be developing mixed reality devices for productivity, learning, and entertainment, and Xbox will team up with Meta again to work on a limited-edition Meta Quest.
Image Credits: Meta
Image Credits: Meta
Additionally, Meta is working on expanding the ways developers can reach their audiences by removing barriers between Meta Horizon Store, ex-Meta Quest Store, and App Lab, allowing any developer who meets basic technical and content requirements to ship software on the platform.
On top of that, there's a new spatial app framework in the works to help mobile developers create mixed-reality projects. As explained by Mark Zuckerberg, there will be multiple ways to access Meta Horizon OS content, including popular services like Xbox Game Pass, Steam Link, or hopefully, even Google Play 2D app store.
Image Credits: Meta
Essentially, this is a long-term investment from Meta to build a comprehensive ecosystem for mixed-reality devices and we'll have to see how all of this takes shape over time. What do you think?
Check out the Meta blog post here for more details and don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.