Facebook parent Meta to partner with Microsoft, Asus, Lenovo for VR operating system to take on Apple - Times of India

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Facebook parent company

Meta

has announced that it will offer

Horizon OS

- the software that powers its Meta Quest devices to third-party hardware makers like

Microsoft

,

Asus

and

Lenovo

, among others, as it expands its plans to take on

Apple

in the emerging virtual and mixed reality industry.

Company CEO

Mark Zuckerberg

made the announcement in a video he shared on Instagram.

"Some updates on the metaverse. Today we're opening up Meta Horizon OS - our operating system powering Quest - so others can design more headsets in our ecosystem," he said in the post.

"Lenovo, Microsoft, and ASUS are some of our first partners, with more coming too. Looking forward to a new wave of headsets focused on productivity, entertainment, gaming, exercise, and more!" Zuckerberg added.

The move will allow these tech companies to build their headsets that will run on Meta Horizon OS, the operating system that offers capabilities like gesture recognition, passthrough, scene understanding and spatial anchors to the devices that run on it.

Meta looking to partner with Google

Meta's virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) devices are powered by Horizon OS which is based on

Google

's Android operating system. Google is also said to be working on an Android platform for VR and MR devices and Zuckerberg said that he will welcome Google Play apps on Meta Horizon OS devices, "if they're up for it."

Meta said the Meta Horizon OS includes Horizon Store, renamed from Quest Store, to download apps and experiences. The platform will work with a mobile companion app now called Meta Horizon app.

Zuckerberg takes a dig at Apple

For years, Meta has complained against Apple's App Store restrictions, and Zuckerberg even criticised Apple Vision Pro headset.

"In every era of computing, there are always open and closed models. With phones, Apple's closed model basically won out. Phones are tightly controlled, and you're locked into what they'll let you do. But it doesn't have to be this way," Zuckerberg said.

"Our goal is to make it said that the open model defines the next generation of computing again with the metaverse, glasses and headsets," Zuckerberg said.