Treeview @ Meta Connect 24
Treeview was invited to attend Meta Connect ‘24, Meta’s annual developer conference held at Meta HQ in Menlo Park, California. The event was a two-day, action-packed conference that kicked off with Zuck 2.0’s keynote.
The event was as a hotbed of passion, ideas, and imagination for the future, bringing together the XR developer community and Meta’s team.
While there were many exciting updates in the industry, our top three highlights from the event are as follows.
1. Meta Quest 3S
It’s great. The hardware is great, fully compatible with the entire catalog of Meta Horizon OS, and it’s completely Mixed Reality. At a price of $299, the Quest 3S has the potential to continue the expansion of Quest 2 and 3 into the consumer market.
Meta is pushing hard into the consumer space, and at this price point, we’re sure to see a new generation of XR users join the platform as we head into the holiday season. Meta is clearly dominating the consumer market with no signs of slowing down.
The price point, the content offering, and the maturity of the development ecosystem are becoming key moats that will put Meta years ahead of any competition in the consumer space.
2. Horizon OS Maturity
Meta’s operating and development system has been in constant flux since Treeview began developing software for the platform nearly a decade ago. It now appears that the operating system has finally reached a state of maturity as Meta establishes an open XR platform. Some of the major announcements include:
- Opening the platform to third-party hardware, including peripherals like the Logitech MX Ink Stylus and upcoming new headsets from companies such as Lenovo, Asus, and others.
- Horizon OS updates, including native Windows 11 integration, which brings features like screen casting from laptops (similar to Apple Vision Pro), multi-app multitasking, and an upcoming redesign of the OS.
- Major updates to developer SDKs, including the Interaction SDK, new avatars, the Passthrough API (which unlocks AI-enabled use cases), and the Meta Spatial SDK, enabling native Android app developers to build for Horizon OS.
3. Orion
With the announcement of Orion, Meta is showing the world the north star it is working to build. Setting aside form factor and certain hardware aspects, Orion is similar to the Magic Leap 2. The big breakthroughs are reducing the form factor, increasing the field of view, and enabling wireless interaction with the puck. these achievements that are incredibly difficult to pull off. But beyond these features, it makes me think that if another major tech company, like Google, wants to catch up to Meta, acquiring Magic Leap might be the best shortcut.
Orion sends a clear message to the world that the next computing platform has arrived, and the industry is working hard to make it an integral part of our daily lives.
Conclusion
The time to build is now. Meta is paving the way for the future of spatial computing, enabling innovators, entrepreneurs, and developers to create digital products for the next computing platform.
If you’re looking for a veteran XR team to help build your vision, let’s chat.
Until next time.
