Zuckerberg: we continue to invest in AR and VR

Zuckerberg: we continue to invest in AR and VR

New York, 5/1/2021

Facebook will continue to invest significantly in AR and VR, Mark Zuckerberg stressed during an earnings call two days ago.

Alluding to VR competitors like HTC Vive , the CEO said he didn’t think consumers would prefer wired headsets in the future. In contrast, he said the Quest 2’s high quality in a wireless headset was a „big breakthrough.“ It is performing better than expected, he said. Most companies would not be able to deliver a wireless experience because the technology is not yet „very advanced.“ But wires would break immersion and prevent VR from feeling present.

Zuckerberg pointed to the launch of Air Link for wireless playback of PC VR content, which supported a 120-Hz refresh rate.

Zuckerberg mentioned Facebook’s future investments in neural interfaces for AR and testing its new Avatar system.
AR glasses that reach mainstream consumers will be „one of the most difficult technical challenges of the decade,“ he said. It involves putting a supercomputer into a pair of glasses, which will be „a pretty big deal “ once it’s feasible, he said.

Facebook’s revenue rose 48% in Q1 thanks to higher-priced ads. Revenue rose to $26.1B, beating analysts‘ expectations of $23.7B.

The non-ad revenue category – which includes sales of Oculus VR and portal devices for video chats – was $732M, up 146% year-over-year. This is down a bit, but still solid, compared to last quarter when it was up 156%, largely due to Quest 2 sales.