Meta has just made the surprising announcement that it will raise the price of its Quest 2 virtual reality headset for $100 next month. If you had second thoughts when you saw that news, we’re sorry: It’s rare for a two-year-old consumer tech product to suddenly go up in price.
We are conditioned to expect the price of technology products to decline over time thanks to the relentless advancement of technology and more efficient manufacturing processes. But here, the same product you could buy in September 2020 will cost 33 percent more in August 2022.
The official reason Meta is raising prices is that “manufacturing and shipping costs for our products have been rising,” according to a company blog post. credited to “Oculus Blog” only. “By adjusting the price of Quest 2, we can continue to increase our investment in innovative research and development of new products that drive the virtual reality industry to new heights.”
Prices of many things we cover here at the edge have risen in recent months, as old lego sets, your Netflix subscription, and even teslas. Usually, though, if a product costs more than it used to, it comes with something new. of Apple latest macbook air It costs $200 more than the previous model, but it has a new design, a bigger screen, a faster processor and a better webcam. In fact, you are getting more for your money. The Quest 2 you buy in August is not that. It’s the exact same product (same screens, same processor, same design) that you might have bought when it launched. (Meta gave base Quest 2 a storage boost in july 2021but did not increase the price at that time).
The closest comparison to the Quest 2’s price jump is perhaps when Sonos raised the price of its Arc soundbar in September. also for $100. However, in my opinion, that is not an apples to apples comparison. The Arc is a premium headset that was already expensive when it launched (originally priced at $799), while the Quest 2 was designed from the ground up to be a more affordable entry into VR hardware, especially since it’s a headset. standalone that does not require a PC. Valve Indexinstead, it costs $999 Y it needs to be connected to a PC to work.
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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales/The Verge
One possible explanation for the new Quest 2 price is rising inflation. Lots of things are more expensive right now, and Meta’s blog post alludes to that. (Meta VR Head was also open about rising costs on Twitter.) But the higher price could also help the company as belt tightening across the board.
Meta’s Reality Labs business, which houses its VR hardware, is bleeding money right now. Last quarter, Meta reported a loss of nearly $3 billion for Reality Labs (pdf), so the losses stemming from Quest 2 could be a way Meta is trying to shore things up. And Meta doesn’t have the production size of big, established hardware manufacturers like Apple, so the economies of scale that typically apply over the life of a product may not have as big an impact on your bottom line. .
The Quest 2 price hike also comes at a strange time, as it looks like we’re on the brink of a major sea change in VR hardware. sony has been drip–feeding information on its PSVR2 hardware throughout the year, though the company has yet to announce when the headset will launch or how much it will cost. It is widely rumored that Apple will launch a high end mixed reality headset that could be released in January. And Meta has openly discussed its own high-end headphones, codenamed Project Cambriaset to launch later this year, a fact the company mentioned in Tuesday’s blog post.
But with Tuesday’s announcement, it’s clear Meta doesn’t want Quest 2 to be a loss leader like it has been, even if the price increase is just to curb losses and not introduce a markup. The price change goes into effect August 1, and if he wants to pick one up before the cost goes up, this is where to go.