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Compared to Quest 2, the new Meta Quest 3 comes with a 49 percent slimmer optic profile, thus a more comfortable headset for users.
Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the company’s next-generation virtual and mixed reality headset dubbed Meta Quest 3. According to the announcement, Meta Quest 3 is an upgrade of its predecessor with higher resolution, stronger performance, and much more Meta Reality technology. The company noted that the Meta Quest 3 is expected to hit the market later this year at a starting price of $499 for the 128 GB headset.
Meanwhile, the company added that it will offer additional storage at an undisclosed fee. The company teased that more details will be released during this year’s Meta Connect which is scheduled on September 27.
Meta Quest 3 Details
According to the company, Meta Quest 3 has combined the highest resolution display and pancake optics to offer the best content quality for its users. Furthermore, Meta Quest 3 has featured the next-generation Snapdragon chipset developed in collaboration with Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM). For comparison purposes, the Meta Quest 3 has more than twice the graphics performance of the Snapdragon GPU in Quest 2.
“Now you can play a virtual board game on your kitchen table with Demeo, decorate your living room with virtual art courtesy of Painting VR, or dive into a fully immersive world to do things that are simply not possible otherwise,” the company noted.
Compared to Quest 2, the new Meta Quest 3 comes with a 49 percent slimmer optic profile, thus a more comfortable headset for users. Notably, the company also redesigned Quest 3’s Touch Plus controllers with a more streamlined and ergonomic form factor. To immerse the users even more in the gaming world, Meta included TruTouch haptics that first debuted in Touch Pro. In addition to new library content, Meta Quest 3 is, ostensibly, compatible with the Quest 2 catalog of over 500 VR games, and applications.
Market Outlook
Following the announcement, Meta Platforms shares closed Thursday trading at $272.61, up 2.98 percent from the day’s opening price. The $678.52 billion valued company has seen its stock market rally approximately 126 percent YTD, according to the latest market data.
The launch of Quest 3 is a huge boost to the company’s VR products amid huge competition for Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL).
Moreover, Apple is also slated to launch its VT headset next week as part of June’s WWDC event. Meanwhile, Meta announced that it has lowered the price of Quest 2 to $299.99 for the 128GB SKU and $349.99 for the 256GB SKU. Additionally, the company noted that the Quest 2 is slated to get a software update to spice up the user experience.
“Quest 2 and Quest Pro GPU and CPU. Quest 2 and Pro will see an up-to 26% CPU performance increase with an up-to 19% GPU speed increase for Quest 2 and 11% for Quest Pro,” the company noted.
Meta’s Q1 2023 performance underscores its commitment to cutting costs and maximizing earnings in its “year of efficiency.”
Meta Platforms (META: NASDAQ) recently reported its Q1 2023 earnings, showing an unexpected revenue increase for the first time in four quarters. The tech giant’s shares jumped 12% following the report, which turned out better than expected.
For the first quarter of the year, Meta raked in revenue of $28.65 billion versus the $27.65 expected by analysts. The California-based social media company also realized earnings per share (EPS) of $2.20 for the same period compared to the consensus estimate of $2.03.
For Q1 2023, Meta experienced a 3% rise year-over-year (YoY) in sales after sustaining three consecutive quarters of revenue decline. The company saw its daily active users (DAUs) swell to 2.04 billion compared to 2.01 billion expected. Meanwhile, monthly active user (MAU) numbers came in on par with estimates at 2.99 billion, while Q1 average revenue per user (ARPU) was $9.62. Wall Street analysts had expected an ARPU of $9.30 for the same period.
Before the earnings report, Meta’s shares were up 74% this year after declining by two-thirds in 2022. The company’s stock passed $234 on Wednesday, following its earnings report, with shares up 164% from November 2022 lows of $89.
As of press time, META was changing hands at $209.40.
Meta Execs Comment on Q1 2023 Outing
Meta co-founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg commented on the company’s latest quarterly outing, saying:
“We had a good quarter, and our community continues to grow. Our AI work is driving good results across our apps and business. We’re also becoming more efficient so we can build better products faster and put ourselves in a stronger position to deliver our long-term vision.”
In light of its commendable Q1 performance, Meta’s Q2 forecast also exceeded expectations. The social media company’s chief financial officer Susan Li said it expects revenue of between $29.5 billion and $32 billion. Meanwhile, analysts had expected no more than $29.5 billion for Q2 2023.
Li added that Meta’s Q2 guidance assumes foreign currency headwinds will be lower than 1% to YoY total revenue growth based on current exchange rates. The CFO also said:
“We anticipate our full-year 2023 total expenses will range between $86 and 90 billion, updated from our prior outlook provided in March. This outlook includes $3-5 billion of restructuring costs related to facilities consolidation charges and severance and other personnel costs.”
However, she pointed out that Reality Labs’ operating losses would increase YoY this year. The unit, which is developing virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) metaverse tech, realized $339 million in sales for Q1. However, it also sustained an operating loss of $3.99 billion for the same period. This is largely because Zuckerberg continues to pump more cash into the metaverse.
However, besides the Reality Labs’ indulgence, Meta is in cost-cutting mode as it grapples with the online ad market slowdown. The multinational technology conglomerate has also embarked on mass layoffs to remain competitive in what it previously described as its “year of efficiency”.
Mass Layoffs
Meta, which is currently in its latest downsizing round, has garnered investors’ support as a prudent way to save costs. Although it let thousands of employees go from late last year into 2023, the company targets an additional 21,000 technical job cuts.
Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify crypto stories to the bare basics so that anyone anywhere can understand without too much background knowledge.
When he’s not neck-deep in crypto stories, Tolu enjoys music, loves to sing and is an avid movie lover.
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The hearing on Tuesday focused on Meta’s acquisition of Within, a VR company that makes a fitness app dubbed Supernatural.
Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) shares closed Tuesday trading at $117.09, up 2.28 percent from the day’s opening price. The gains extended during the after-hours trading session with approximately 0.74 percent. Under the leadership of Mark Zuckerberg, Meta has been accused of buying its way up the virtual reality (VR) industry by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
In the past decade, Meta – formerly Facebook – had been developing its ecosystem to shape the future of technology. Moreover, Meta has made several acquisitions worth billions, which has ostensibly made the FTC think the social media giant is killing competitors.
“Instead of competing on the merits, Meta is trying to buy its way to the top,” said FTC Bureau of Competition Deputy Director John Newman in a statement about the lawsuit. “Meta already owns a best-selling virtual reality fitness app, and it had the capabilities to compete even more closely with Within’s popular Supernatural app. But Meta chose to buy market position instead of earning it on the merits.”
Mark Zuckerberg testifies that fitness in VR isn’t even his top VR app “use-case” priority. He reiterates social, gaming and productivity are priorities, and he says his email about the Peloton partnership was spurred b/c the VR biz was doing better in 2021 than forecasted.
— Dorothy Atkins (@doratki) December 20, 2022
The hearing on Tuesday focused on Meta’s acquisition of Within, a VR company that makes a fitness app dubbed Supernatural. During the hearing, Zuckerberg said that Meta focused on virtual reality (VR) fitness apps in 2021 due to its excess capital. However, the company’s stand has since changed as revenues hit a nosedive in 2022.
Furthermore, the privacy implementation by Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) has significantly reduced the revenues of most social media platforms that are heavily dependent on online advertisements.
Meta Shares and the Market Outlook
According to market data from MarketWatch, Meta shares have lost approximately 65 percent in 2022, thus retesting the lows of 2016. While most of the FAANG stocks have recorded poor performance in 2022, market strategists are positive they will be profitable in the coming years. Moreover, the global economy is heavily reliant on emerging technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain development.
As such, Meta remains under regulatory scrutiny due to its competitive prospects and ability to kill other smaller businesses. According to aggregate data from MarketWatch, Meta has a market capitalization of approximately $303.55 billion and 2.25 billion shares outstanding.
Meta has received significant criticism for its market dominance both domestically and internationally markets. During Tuesday’s hearing, the Federal Trade Commission lawyers attempted to show that Meta had planned to compete with apps like Within, arguing that executives identified fitness as a way to expand VR use beyond its existing fan base of young male gamers.
While the FTC continues to pressure Meta to stop the Within acquisition, the commission also wants to unwind two previous acquisitions, Instagram and WhatsApp, in a lawsuit filed in 2020.
Let’s talk crypto, Metaverse, NFTs, CeDeFi, and Stocks, and focus on multi-chain as the future of blockchain technology.
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Days after Facebook’s parent company Meta called its quits for its stablecoin project Diem, Block Inc’s Jack Dorsey has come lashing out at the company.
The Twitter founder and former executive believe that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg should have spent so much effort in creating a new stablecoin. Dorsey believes that the company would have been better off had they focused on improving the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Jack Dorsey is an ardent fan of Bitcoin and has been working on ways to improve the ecosystem. Dorsey’s payment company Block Inc. is working on affordable and easily accessible (less technical) Bitcoin wallets along with creating affordable hardware for Bitcoin miners.
On Tuesday, Feb 1, Dorsey said that Meta’s approach to Diem wasn’t open enough. He further criticizes the company for putting too much focus for driving people to its own suite of products. Speaking at the MicroStrategy World Conference on Tuesday, Dorsey added:
“They tried to create a currency that was owned by Facebook — probably for the right reasons, probably for noble reasons — but there were also some reasons that would indicate trying to get more and more people onto the Facebook ecosystem. They did that instead of using an open protocol and standard like Bitcoin.
Hopefully they learned a lot, but I think there was a lot of wasted effort and time. Those two years or three years, or however long it’s been, could have been spent making Bitcoin more accessible for more people around the world, which would also benefit their Messenger product and Instagram and WhatsApp.”
Silvergate to Acquire Meta’s Diem Assets
As per the recent development, crypto-focused Silvergate bank shall be acquiring Meta’s Diem Assets for a reported bid of around $200 million. This will mark the end of Diem’s three-year efforts that started around June 2019.
Meta’s long-going regulatory discussions didn’t turn out to be in favor of the company! However, the interesting question is whether this will be the end of Meta’s crypto pursuit? Last year Tesla set precedence by adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet.
Currently, Meta is holding massive cash on its balance and many analysts are hopeful that it will be the next big organization to buy Bitcoin. Do you think we can hear a Bitcoin purchase announcement from Meta ahead this year in 2022?
Disclaimer
The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.
About Author
The latest craze in crypto is around the virtual world of Metaverse that will be powered by Web 3.0 technologies including cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and NFTs. Apart from leading crypto contenders such as The Sandbox (SAND) and the Decentraland (MANA), major tech giants such as Facebook [Meta] have decided to develop their own metaverse.
The social media giant recently rebranded itself as Meta to show its dedication in the field and is already developing both hardware and software for the virtual world. Meta CEO Mark Zukerberg recently attended an event in India around the future plans of the company and he noted that India will play a core role in the metaverse.
Speaking at @Meta ‘s ‘#FuelForIndia‘, founder #MarkZuckerberg said that
#India‘s talent pool – the engineers, developers and creators, and the vibrant start-up ecosystem – are playing a huge role in shaping the future.#Metaverse #Web3 #IndiaWantsCrypto pic.twitter.com/im5Rv2JSlg
— Bitinning (@bitinning) December 16, 2021
He said,
“We’re thinking about what the next generation is going to look like in terms of where these creators and developers are going to come from who are going to build the foundation of the metaverse. I think it’s obvious India is going to be a huge part of that.”
The comments from the Meta CEO also come on the heels of opening a new office in India which is said to be the first such stand-alone office in Asia. In the next three years, the organization plans to train one crore small enterprises and entrepreneurs, as well as 2,50,000 creators.
Meta among many betting big on India
Zukerberg also lauded India’s gaming industry and said it has transformed rapidly over the past couple of years. The Meta CEO believes the development of the Indian gaming industry could help the platform grow its talent pool for the metaverse where P2E NFT gaming is in trend.
Meta is not the only tech giant that sees India as a core contributor in the Web 3.0 era, in fact over the past couple of years, many renowned venture capital firms and crypto platform giants have invested in the Indian crypto firms be it Coinbase or a16z. India’s pool of developers and human resources is known the world over, and with the right set of regulations, the country has a huge potential to become a reckoning force in the near future.
Disclaimer
The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.
About Author
Heading into a new trading week, here is a quick roundup of the top five stories from the technology, corporate and cryptocurrency sectors that investors would not want to miss out on from the weekend.
1. Twitter Revamps Under New CEO: Twitter Inc.’s (NASDAQ:TWTR) new CEO Parag Agrawal has reorganized the company’s management team in his first week at the company’s helm. Twitter, which is shifting to a General Manager model, said in a regulatory filing that engineering lead Michael Montano as well as design and research lead Dantley Davis will step down from their positions at the end of the year.
2. Randi Zuckerberg Says Shiba Inu Has Become Mainstream: Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has said that Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB), the self-described “Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE)-killer,” has gone mainstream. In a video published on her official YouTube channel, Randi also added that she believes both Shiba Inu and Dogecoin have an opportunity to grow despite their rivalry.
3. Alibaba Reorganizes Amid Headwinds: Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) has replaced its long-standing CFO and announced a reorganization of its e-commerce business into two new units. The Jack Ma-founded company, which was the first among major Chinese tech companies to feel the pinch from a regulatory crackdown by Beijing last year, said its deputy chief financial officer Toby Xu will succeed Maggie Wu as CFO from April next year.
4. Bitcoin, Altcoins Trade Weak After “Bloody Saturday”: Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and other major cryptocurrencies continued to trade weak on Sunday evening after a “bloody Saturday” sell-off due to fear surrounding a hike in interest rates and the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus. Bitcoin was down 2.3% during the last 24 hours, trading at $48,303.99 at press time early Monday.
5. Elon Musk’s Wealth Drops $15B Amid Market Sell-Off: The net worth of Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk — the world’s richest person — fell by $15.2 billion on Friday as shares of Tesla and other tech companies tumbled amid a broader market selloff following a discouraging November jobs report coupled with concerns surrounding the coronavirus omicron variant.
What Else: Among other stories from the weekend, investors would want to check out the EV week in review, the ten weirdest Beatles covers of all time, how Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) continued to dominate the U.S. box office, and news that Cathie-Wood led Ark Invest sold more shares in Tesla while loading up on shares in DocuSign Inc. (NASDAQ:DOCU) on Friday.
Meanwhile, CNN, a division of AT&T Inc.’s (NYSE:T) WarnerMedia, has fired Chris Cuomo following the revelations of how the primetime anchor helped his brother and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo respond to sexual harassment accusations.