Korean media last month alleged that the Meta/LG partnership to create a high-end XR headset wasn’t going so well, suggesting either outright cancellation or a delay pushing release of a prospective Apple Vision Pro competitor to 2027. While this hasn’t been substantiated by either company, it’s clear there’s something big going on under the surface, as LG is now shuffling employees from its XR division to other parts of the company.
As confirmed by Korean outlet ETNews (Korean), LG is reassigning employees in charge of the XR division to research and development and other business divisions within the company.
Here’s the official statement from LG obtained by ETNews, machine translated from Korean to English:
“We have recently confirmed the relocation policy for personnel in charge of the XR business. Taking into account the department and work location desired by the personnel and the demand for additional personnel in other departments, the relocation will take place for about a month.”
ETNews reports that the nature of the shakeup is “unusual” in LG, as such cases of forming a product division after research and development comes as a rare occurrence.
The report further stipulates LG has delayed its own XR tech indefinitely, and terminated its joint commercialization of a product with Meta. The report however maintains the two companies will continue in research and development of XR technologies.
When LG announced its collaboration with Meta in May, it was said the partnership would be focused on strengthening “the fusion of Meta’s diverse core technological elements with LG’s cutting-edge product and quality capabilities [promising] significant synergies in next-gen XR device development.”
While not explicitly stated by either LG or Meta, it was rumored the two has been working to create a competitor to Apple Vision Pro for launch in 2025.
One possible reason for the XR shakeup could be Meta is getting ready to release its XR operating system to third-party OEMs for the first time, which will include new Quest-style headsets coming from ASUS, Lenovo, and Xbox. Growing the number of competing devices that will use Meta’s HorizonOS (ex-QuestOS) and Horizon Store (ex-Quest Store) so rapidly may have spoiled the deal for LG—although without confirmation from either company, that remains conjecture at this time.
