Meta announced the official event dates for its Connect 2024 technology showcase this week. Taking place September 25 – 26, 2024, Connect will showcase a lineup of Meta’s latest digital solutions from its social media and XR umbrella.
Meta has not yet revealed details on the event, other than the event will feature a number of expected sessions, featured technology, and speakers such as CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Historically, Connect is an event that reveals, among other things, deep insights into the firm’s XR roadmap. In past events, Connect events have featured the company’s rebrand, Meta Quest 3, and RayBan AR glasses.
This year has been significant for XR devices, with Apple shifting interest in the sector, which has led to interest from other substantial and exciting headset vendors in the space.
To face this increasing competition, Meta must presumably use Connect to cement a market lead by presenting an outstanding, competitive product portfolio.
Regarding hardware products, since last year’s Connect event, Meta representatives have revealed details on an unreleased MR headset and a Meta Quest 3 Lite device. The latter may aim to boost the presence of the Meta Quest 3 with a lower price—perhaps matching the success of its previous iteration.
How will Meta Stand out in 2024?
With the rise of increased interest and investment in XR—or spatial computing—devices, new use cases and solutions are also emerging. The aforementioned spatial computing trend of 2024 was launched by Apple, a pre-existing terminology that Apple adopted to help its immersive productivity focus stand out from Meta’s consumer drive.
With Apple’s marketplace play, Meta and others in the market took note, presenting affordable and accessible alternatives to the Vision Pro. Most recently, at Microsoft Build, Pavan Davuluri, the firm’s Corporate Vice President of Windows and Devices, announced a fresh partnership with Meta to debut a volumetric workspace for the Quest portfolio. The move positions the Quest as a competitor to Apple Vision Pro’s productivity goal. Meta is testing Vision Pro-style features and debuting new XR productivity hardware packages.
Earlier this year, Meta announced a new 2024 product release. The focus will be increasing the use of XR headsets in classrooms and educational settings. The company will introduce a new Meta Quest product range specifically designed for the education sector, aiming to encourage the adoption and understanding of XR technology among educational professionals.
Like the Meta Quest for Business product model launched last year, the education solution will soon offer education-specific XR applications and management features for teachers, trainers, and administrators. The new management features will allow teachers to use multiple Quest devices simultaneously in a classroom setting.
In a blog post, Nick Clegg, Meta’s President of Global Affairs, emphasized the significant market represented by education and training providers for Meta. He also highlighted the growing number of developers creating apps for this sector and underlined the potential to expand immersive education products on a much larger scale.
Meta’s interest in immersive productivity and its goals in changing the workplace and other productivity sectors were outlined years ago. However, some of these efforts, such as Horizon Workrooms, lack updates as MR collaboration and less invasive immersive solutions take hold of the enterprise.
Meta has many pillars that will support a dedicated focus on productivity. However, the company also has a stronghold on customer and entertainment devices thanks to its MEta Quest lineup. Other devices have not captured the consumer market quite like the Meta Quest 2. So, consumer adoption efforts will most likely take centre stage.
