Doubling down on building the infrastructure and experiences for its ambitious Metaverse, Meta is strengthening its partnership with LG to “expedite” the company’s extended reality (XR) business. While nothing much was revealed or confirmed, with this new partnership with Meta, LG says the ultimate goal is “to combine the strengths of both companies across products, content, services and platforms to drive innovation in customer experiences within the burgeoning virtual space.”
The Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta has already burned through billions of dollars in its quest to build out the metaverse, hoping to establish itself as a leader in the metaverse, mirroring its success with Facebook in the early days of social media. While the company has built out a decent VR/XR ecosystem with offerings like the recent Quest 3 headset and Ray-Ban smart glasses, it still has a long way to go as it develops compelling user experiences that truly drive user engagement.
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During his tour of Asia, Meta’s head honcho, Zuckerberg, visited LG’s headquarters in Seoul to unveil their collaboration. While there, LG CEO William Cho personally tried out the Quest 3 and the newly launched Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and walked away thoroughly impressed.
“The two-hour session saw discussions on business strategies and considerations for next-gen XR device development. CEO Cho, while experiencing the Meta Quest 3 headset and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, expressed a keen interest in Meta’s advanced technology demonstrations, notably focusing on Meta’s large language models and its potential for on-device AI integration,” says LG.
As of now, the two companies remain tight-lipped about the specifics of the partnership. However, LG says that it hopes to combine “Meta’s platform with its own content/service capabilities” from its TV business. As per the official blog, “XR devices are heralded as next-generation personal devices capable of surpassing mobile screens’ limitations in immersion and intuitiveness. Wearable devices offer the potential to substantially broaden customer interactions.”
All of this suggests that LG’s displays or services could be used in Meta’s next-generation devices and XR headsets, potentially leading to a better overall experience. While we still will have to wait and find out what Meta and LG’s collaboration will lead to, the VR space has certainly moved beyond its niche origins and is experiencing wider adoption. As Cho stated, “We see opportunities for next-gen personal devices in the XR business arena.”
