The tech giant Meta, previously known as Facebook, has had to reevaluate its ambitious plans for augmented reality (AR) glasses. The company had initially entered into an agreement to procure AR displays from the British firm Plessey. However, this deal has proven to be unsuccessful.
In March 2020, as the world grappled with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Facebook (now Meta) negotiated a deal to purchase all of the AR displays being produced by Plessey. The agreement seemed a strategic move at the time, as it gave Meta an upper hand in the race against Apple to develop AR glasses. This was mainly due to Plessey being one of the rare manufacturers of AR displays.
Fast forward three years and the deal has turned out to be a poor investment for Meta. According to sources with direct knowledge of the project, the development of Plessey’s technology has been sluggish. Meta has faced significant challenges in enhancing the brightness of Plesley’s displays for use in its AR glasses and minimizing defects that emerge during manufacturing.
Earlier this year, the company made the decision to ditch Plessey’s microLED tech. Instead, it opted for a more established display technology known as liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS). This decision, along with several others made for technological or financial reasons, has eroded the competitive advantage that Meta’s AR glasses initially held over existing AR headsets, such as Microsoft’s HoloLens.
The shift from Plessey’s displays to the older LCoS technology is a clear sign of Meta’s tempered ambitions for its AR glasses. As the development of this new technology has stalled, the company has been forced to look back at older technologies, even at the expense of its competitive advantage in the market. This story is a stark reminder of the challenges that even tech giants face when attempting to push the boundaries of what is technologically possible.