META PAUSES THIRD-PARTY VR HEADSET PLANS WITH ASUS AND LENOVO

Meta has paused its plans to bring third-party virtual reality headsets to market through partnerships with manufacturers such as Asus and Lenovo, according to recent reporting.

- 

The decision slows an initiative that aimed to broaden the Meta Quest ecosystem by allowing hardware partners to ship headsets running Meta’s VR software, expanding the platform beyond Meta-branded devices.

The move comes as Meta continues to reassess how it allocates resources across its Reality Labs division, which oversees virtual and augmented reality development. While Meta has positioned VR and mixed reality as long-term priorities, the company has also adjusted timelines and investment levels in response to market adoption, costs, and shifting internal focus.

Pausing third-party headsets does not signal an exit from VR hardware, but it does narrow the company’s near-term approach to how the Quest platform evolves and who participates in building devices around it.

WHY THIRD-PARTY HEADSETS WERE PART OF META’S STRATEGY

Meta’s earlier plans for third-party VR hardware were modeled loosely on the Android ecosystem, where a shared software platform supports devices from multiple manufacturers. Under that approach, companies like Asus and Lenovo would have been able to design headsets tailored to different price points, form factors, or regional markets while relying on Meta’s operating system, app store, and developer tools.