Meta has announced that it is opening up the operating system that powers its Quest devices, called Meta Horizon, to third party hardware makers. This announcement comes soon after the news that the company has formed a partnership with LG to grow their extended-reality business. The partnerships don’t stop there, however, as Meta’s announcement reveals that they are working with “leading global technology companies” with the intention of creating a mixed reality ecosystem.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta commented on opening up access to Meta Horizon, saying, “Today we’re opening up Meta Horizon OS – our operating system powering Quest – so others can design more headsets in our ecosystem. Lenovo, Microsoft, and Asus are some of our first partners, with more coming too. Looking forward to a new wave of headsets focused on productivity, entertainment, gaming, exercise, and more!”
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The company says that the Horizon OS is the result of a decade’s work towards pioneering standalone mixed reality headsets, and it hopes that opening up the platform leads to more appealing options for consumers. In addition to lending its operating system to third parties, Meta has also announced they will be allowing any developer who meets “basic technical and content requirements” to release their app on the platform.
“We believe a more open ecosystem is the best way to bring the power of mixed reality to as many people as possible,” reads the company’s announcement. “With more devices, this new ecosystem will offer more choice to consumers and businesses around the world. 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.”
