LG Electronics Terminates XR Cooperation with Meta, Seeks New Partners
TapTechNews May 20th news, according to Kedglobal reports, South Korean tech giant LG Electronics has terminated its cooperation with Meta in the field of Extended Reality (XR). Previously, in February this year, the two sides reached an agreement to jointly develop XR devices including virtual headsets.
Insiders said that LG is currently seeking a new partner to provide the operating system and software for its XR device planned to be released next year. According to insiders, another American tech giant, Amazon, has become a potential cooperation target.
At the end of February this year, Mark Zuckerberg visited Seoul, South Korea, and had talks with LG Electronics' chief executive officer William Cho and LG's chief operating officer Kwon Bong-seok to discuss strengthening cooperation in the field of XR devices.
At that time, LG Electronics stated that the leaders of both sides agreed to jointly develop the next-generation XR devices, including an XR headset, and to carry out cooperation in artificial intelligence devices. LG and Meta claimed that they would respectively use their own hardware technology and artificial intelligence expertise to release an XR headset in the first half of 2025 and outperform Apple's latest Mixed Reality (MR) headset VisionPro in terms of performance.
XR is a general term covering technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). Industry sources said that LG recently interrupted its cooperation with Meta in the development of XR devices.
There were some differences when the two sides discussed XR devices. As I understand it, LG thought the synergy of the cooperation was not obvious, so it requested to terminate the cooperation, an industry insider said.
Industry insiders pointed out that if the cooperation goes smoothly, LG will embed Meta's operating system Horizon in its new XR device, similar to the operating system of the MetaQuest Pro XR device.
In return, Meta can use LG's extensive global electronics sales network and advanced OLED panel technology to expand the XR device business. Subsidiaries of the LG Group, such as LG Display and LG Innotek, are leaders in the field of XR headset components.
LG Display is developing Micro Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLEDos) technology, while the camera module manufacturer LG Innotek is the global leader in high-end lens manufacturing.
According to sources, LG Electronics has already been seeking a new partner for its XR headset business. Industry observers pointed out that considering that Amazon has a streaming service Amazon Prime with more than 200 million subscribers worldwide, making it one of the most likely candidate partners. A strong streaming subscription user base is a key factor for the successful release of an XR device.
Since Amazon does not have its own XR operating system, industry insiders speculate that the operating system of LG's next XR headset may adopt Google's Android system. LG may also choose to develop independently because they have the webOS operating system for TVs.
Industry observers expect that Meta may be seeking a cooperative relationship in XR with Chinese company Tencent.
According to market research firm IDC's prediction, the global XR device market size will increase from an estimated $18.2 billion (TapTechNews note: currently about 258.111 billion yuan) this year to $35.7 billion in 2026.