Meta Discontinues $999 Quest Pro, Shifts Focus to Affordable Quest 3

Meta Platforms, Inc’s META $999 Quest Pro is no longer available for sale, as it redirects customers to the Meta Quest 3, available for $499.99.

The decision was made over two months after the company dumped the premium virtual reality headset because it failed to gain traction, Verge cites UploadVR.

Meta shared plans to keep selling the headset until 2024 or until it ran out of stock, whichever came first, triggering speculation of lackluster demand.

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Meta Quest Touch Pro Controllers, compatible with Quest 2 and 3, are still available for consumers. Earlier in 2024, Meta reduced the price of its Meta Quest 2 VR headset to $199, half of the original.

Meta’s augmented and VR division, Reality Labs, reported a third-quarter earnings loss of $4.4 billion, marking the third consecutive quarterly loss for the segment in 2024. Previous quarters in 2024 had losses of $3.8 billion and $4.5 billion.

In related AR/VR headset news, prior reports indicated Apple Inc AAPL was slashing production of its $3,500 Vision Pro headset and shifting focus toward a more affordable model for 2025 to penetrate a broader audience.

Meta reportedly plans to integrate displays into Ray-Ban smart glasses by 2025. The $300 sunglasses project, in partnership with EssilorLuxottica ESLOF ESLOY, could offer small screens to display notifications and responses from Meta’s virtual assistant.

Meta is also fast-tracking the development of its prototype AR glasses, Orion.

Meta’s smart glasses have become a fixture in 60% of Ray-Ban stores in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, outperforming conventional Ray-Ban models.

Wall Street firms, including JMP Securities and Rosenblatt, expect Meta’s AI and VR initiatives to help it reach valuations like Apple’s.

Meta stock surged 76% in the last 12 months. Investors can gain exposure to the stock through iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF ITOT and SPDR Series Trust SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Growth ETF SPYG.

Price Action: META stock closed higher by 4.23% at $630.20 on Monday.

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