Report: Oculus Quest 2 to Go into Production This Month
The competition in the VR hardware market is heating up and a new report by the Japanese tech news website Nikkei now claims that Facebook’s new Oculus Quest headset is set to go into production later this month.
The publication reportedly talked to a “source with direct knowledge” of the developments and writes that the production of the new Quest virtual reality headset is set to begin before the end of July 2020. The source divulged that the new Oculus Quest VR headset “will enter mass production around the end of July.”
The Nikkei report also cites ambitious production numbers, reporting that Facebook is set to produce 2 million units of the new Quest headset in just the second half of 2020. The ambitious production target has been driven by the success of the Quest headset where demand outstripped the supply and the headset run out of stock for several weeks early this year. This is roughly twice the number of Oculus headsets that were produced over the same period in 2019.
While this report is yet to be validated or confirmed by Facebook, it aligns with what was published in an earlier Bloomberg report which claimed that Facebook could launch a new Quest headset model in 2020. This new headset will not be an Oculus Quest 2 but simply an update to the original Quest headset. The design should be more ergonomic and comfortable and it will also feature a higher refresh rate.
The production of the new headset could also be delayed up to 2021 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic which has so far had adverse impact on the production schedules in China. In March, it was revealed that the code name of the potential new Quest headset is ‘Del Mar’.
Facebook is yet to provide the sales statistics for Quest but the Nikkei report claims that this Facebook segment has grown by 50% year-over-year. The report also states that Facebook plans to expand the standalone line which might imply that the new headset along with the Facebook’s rumored new Quest headset could be the same device.
The standalone Oculus Quest headset was released in May last year and the new iteration of Quest is also expected to be a standalone VR headset of some kind.
Oculus Quest and other standalone VR headsets have revolutionized virtual reality and charted the way forward for future VR experiences that will feature increased range of movement as well as general flexibility in how users interact with virtual reality experiences, mostly VR games.
The most likely scenario with the new headset is that it could be a “Quest S”, akin to Facebook’s update of Oculus Rift S from Oculus Rift last year. With the discontinuation of the budget Oculus Go last year, we are unlikely to see a Go successor. The Quest and its possible update could therefore be Facebook’s only standalone VR hardware play in a market where there is still dearth of serious standalone contenders. The other possibility based on earlier reports is that Facebook could also roll out a ‘Quest Lite’ that slightly downgrades the Quest performance and comes at a more affordable entry level pricing.
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