Meta is going all-in on VR headsets: Meta is launching the Quest headset’s operating system, the company said yesterday, in an apparent effort to cement its influence in the virtual (VR) and mixed reality (MR) industry. The move means that partner companies like ASUS and Lenovo can license and use the Meta Horizon OS, which allows for gesture recognition, passthrough, scene understanding, and spatial anchors on their devices, Meta said.

Is The Zuck following Google’s footsteps? Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants the company to be the default computational platform for VR and MR devices. Google accomplished the same goal in the smartphone industry by making their Android OS open source, according to the Verge. This isn’t the only way Meta has benefited from Google’s strategy — Horizon itself is Android-based, running on a version of Google’s OS.

This investment is a bit of a gambit: While Zuckerberg is excited about the diverse iterations of VR/MR headsets — presenting specialized headset concepts on Instagram — the technology hasn’t been picked up by everybody. The gaming community has been the most adaptable sector, followed by companies that utilize the tech for training or remote conferencing, according to Reuters.

Apple is already in the chat: Earlier this year, Apple launched its Vision Pro headset. While Meta is still the current market leader, large competitors entering the industry are putting more pressure on securing a foothold. Zuckerberg seems to resent the comparison that was made calling Horizon OS the Android alternative to Apple’s Vision Pro, saying he prefers the equivalence to Microsoft shaping the early PC market by licensing Windows, the Verge says.

Google is also allegedly developing Android systems for VR/MR devices, which Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth warned could “fragment the ecosystem,” Reuters says. The Zuck is playing it cool, however, saying he would welcome Google Play on devices running Meta Horizon OS.

The road to VR has been bumpy for Meta, with early versions of Horizon’s 3D socialplatform, Horizon Worlds, being virtually laughed out of the building. The platform has seen more success as a 2D platform, but Zuckerberg has continued to double down on its development. Any devices using Horizon OS will give their users access to Horizon Worlds that Meta intends to line up with ads and traffic to make it profitable.

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