On January 26th, CNBC broke the news that Meta has made a strategic pivot, redirecting its business emphasis from virtual reality (VR) to artificial intelligence (AI) and smart glasses. This move has ignited widespread industry concerns regarding the future trajectory of VR. Jessica Yang, an independent VR content creator who specifically tailors her content for Meta's virtual social platform, Horizon Worlds, remarked that she can tangibly feel the onset of what she perceives as a VR winter.

Just last week, Meta announced the layoff of roughly 10% of the workforce within its Reality Labs division. The layoffs were particularly concentrated on projects centered around VR headsets, such as the Quest series, and the development team for Horizon Worlds also faced significant cuts. Despite Meta's Chief Technology Officer, Andrew Bosworth, reiterating that the company has not turned its back on the VR sector, market research firm IDC highlights that the VR headset market remains a niche segment. It primarily attracts a specific subset of gamers, while the broader consumer base shows little enthusiasm for donning VR headsets for prolonged periods.

In contrast, Meta's smart glasses have garnered positive reception in the market. The company has outlined plans to ramp up the annual production capacity of smart glasses to an impressive 20 million units by 2026.