Meta Pulls the Plug on its AR/VR Operating System Ambitions
upstart writes:
Report: Meta pulls the plug on its AR/VR operating system ambitions:
Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has pulled the plug on its current efforts to develop an operating system for AR and VR devices, The Information reported today.
Citing "two people familiar with the decision," the article claims that Meta will return to the status quo of running Oculus devices-and perhaps future mixed reality devices-on a modified version of Google's Android operating system for mobile phones.
The project, which was internally called XROS, had reportedly been underway for years and "involved hundreds of employees." Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was talking up its potential only a few short months ago. The reasons for Meta's decision to pull the plug are not publicly known at this time.
From the outside, the decision appears to be a major setback in a brewing war over mixed reality between Meta, Apple, and potentially other tech giants. Apple's upcoming VR or AR headsets will without a doubt run a custom-made operating system that is designed to leverage tight integration with the hardware for strong performance and a stable experience.
It could be difficult for Facebook to compete with that without its own, ground-up software. That said, Facebook and Apple may end up targeting very different use cases for AR and VR; their ultimate strategies remain a mystery to most.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.