- Lenovo and Asus are among the companies building headsets that run Horizon software.
- The move expands Meta’s reach in the AR/VR market, while enabling headset vendors to focus on hardware development rather than software.
- Meta will license the software underpinning its Quest headsets to third-party hardware manufacturers in a bid to spur wider adoption of mixed-reality technology.
Lenovo and Asus, alongside other companies, are adopting Meta’s Horizon software for their headsets, expanding Meta’s presence in the AR/VR market.
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A win-win for hardware makers and software developers
Meta will license the software underpinning its Quest headsets to third-party hardware manufacturers in a bid to spur wider adoption of mixed-reality technology.
Access to Horizon OS — the operating system used in Quest devices — should reduce barriers to market for hardware makers seeking to create new products, Meta said. And software developers will benefit from a larger audience for mixed-reality apps that can be sold in Meta’s Horizon app store (formerly Quest Store).
“Developers will have a much larger range of hardware that can run their apps, and more device makers will expand their market to a wider range of users, much like we’ve seen with PCs and smartphones,” Meta said in a blog post Monday.
Also Read: Meta opens Quest OS to third-party headset makers
A smart move for Meta
Analysts suggest that by advocating for an open ecosystem, Meta can strengthen its leading position in the AR/VR market and simultaneously reduce the entry barriers for hardware manufacturers.
“This is a smart move for Meta to diversify their hardware ecosystem, while also working to make Meta Horizon OS the standard mixed-reality headset OS,” said Will McKeon-White, senior analyst at Forrester.“Before, they were effectively dependent on Oculus sales — this decouples their OS from their headset and hardware efforts.”
