Meta Slashes Prices for VR Headsets
Key Takeaways
- Fb mother or father Meta Platforms (META) introduced that it might cut back promoting costs for its Quest digital actuality (VR) headsets.
- The transfer comes amid a decline in Meta’s VR shipments and stress from activist shareholders to enhance the monetary image of its metaverse division.
- Meta shares moved 6% greater following the announcement.
Meta Platforms (META) shares jumped 6% after the tech large introduced large worth cuts for its digital actuality (VR) headsets.
Meta stated the price of the Quest 2 will drop $70 to $429.99, whereas the worth of the higher-end Quest Professional might be slashed to $999.99 from $1,499.99. The modifications for the Quest 2 start Sunday, March 5. The reductions for the Quest Professional begin March 5 within the U.S. and Canada, and on March 15 in different nations the place it’s supported.
The corporate defined that its purpose has all the time been to “create {hardware} that is reasonably priced for as many individuals as attainable to reap the benefits of all that VR has to supply.” It added that VR is “a robust social platform and inventive know-how, and the extra folks with entry to it, the higher.”
Jitesh Ubrani of market analysis agency IDC identified that Meta’s year-over-year VR shipments plunged 93% within the fourth quarter, whereas these of Pico from rival ByteDance rose 110%. He argued that this was “one of many large causes behind these worth cuts.”
Metaverse Unit Losses
Meta has additionally been feeling stress to enhance the funds of its Actuality Labs, the corporate’s metaverse unit, which incorporates the VR headsets. Activist investor Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO of tech-focused hedge fund Altimeter Capital, despatched an open letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg in October calling for a pullback in metaverse spending. Meta reported in February that Actuality Labs misplaced $13.72 billion in 2022.
With the beneficial properties posted on March 3, Meta Platforms shares are up 54% this yr.
