Meta announced in February it was partnering with South Korean tech giant LG to create an XR headset that was reportedly set to compete with Apple Vision Pro. Recent reports from Korean media however maintain that partnership is in danger.

A report from the Korean Economic Daily alleges the Meta/LG partnership has been completely terminated, further stating that LG is “now seeking a new partner to provide an operating system and software for XR devices LG plans to unveil next year.” A candidate could be Amazon, the report maintains.

“There were some differences between LG and Meta while discussing XR devices. I understand LG requested an end to collaboration because it believed there was not much synergy from their XR partnership,” an industry source familiar with the matter told the Korean Economic Daily.

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Still, it’s not clear whether it’s a done deal, or the companies are simply pumping the brakes. In a statement to Korea JoongAng Daily, LG says it “continues the XR partnership with Meta forged in February but is controlling its pace.”

Indeed, news of the partnership itself was the subject of a leak from earlier this year. While that doesn’t lend credence to this particular report, it does suggest there are reliable sources, either within or around LG, leaking credible information.

At the time, the partnership was said to ‘fuse’ Meta’s diverse core technological elements with LG’s cutting-edge product and quality capabilities, which hoped to create “significant synergies in next-gen XR device development.” Additionally, it was rumored the two would work to create a competitor to Apple Vision Pro, which was rumored to launch sometime in 2025.

This comes after Meta announced it’s pledged to release its XR operating system to third-party OEMs for the first time, including ASUS, Lenovo, and Xbox, all of which are tapped to release their own headsets in the near future.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.

  • NOBODY can work with this nutjob …. lol
    []^ )

  • guest

    Well that explains why LG was not onboard the announcement of the H-OS! Now can somebody please explain why Lenovo was given that Meta is banned from China???

    • ViRGiN

      Is Meta really banned in China, or simply not operating there?
      There is steam in China, and when high ranking communist dies, steam is obligated to turn their web black and white to pay respect. They also have completly different library than the rest of the world.

      One simply does not operate in China. Chinese market is pretty much closed for everyone unless you’re willing to very closely integrate and follow their leadership.

      • guest

        Yeah, can you really buy them off the shelf? Are you guilty until proven innocent if you are caught doing something not authorized?

    • Hussain X

      I think you’re mistaking LG with the Tencent partnership. LG is South Korean. Tencent is the China based company.

      • Sean Bannister

        Not be confused with 50 Cent in Zimbabwe, they call him $300 Million Dollars.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      Meta isn’t really banned in China. Meta services are blocked because they don’t comply with requirements set by the Chinese government regarding content moderation and user data, similar to Google, as both are providing a lot of services showing user generated content the Chinese government wants to keep in check.

      The limitations don’t apply to the technology itself. Meta could sell the Quest in China, but would have to provide local versions of their services considered compliant. Or they could partner with a Chinese company, have them offer the same hardware/OS and basic software, but with separate user management and content handling. Which they already did with the Oculus Go produced by Xiaomi and sold there with Xiaomi services, and planned to do again with Tencent.

  • Hussain X

    I think LG is unhappy that Meta will now allow more headset manufacturers to use Meta Horizon OS. LG maybe wanted to be the only 3rd party manufacturer to compete on the high end “to create a competitor to Apple Vision Pro”. Competition & choice is always good for consumers.

    Talking of LG, I write this comment as a huge fan of the LG V20, the last flagship phone which has a rare advanced technology that allows battery to be easily swapped out as it’s not sealed in. I do hope we get such a VR headset in the future so I can use the headset a lot more without worrying about degrading battery health due to unnecessary use since it can just be easily swapped out (& I’m hopefull thanks to the EU).

    • ViRGiN

      > rare advanced technology that allows battery to be easily swapped
      sadly, kids with their powerbanks dont mind it.

      swappable batteries are the only thing guaranteeing all-day battery life.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      I seriously doubt that LG wanted this XR cooperation to stay exclusive. Everybody is facing Apple/Google transitioning user bases counting billions, by extending existing 2D use cases with thousands of apps as leverage. Whoever wants to compete needs to grow fast with as many partners on their side as possible to attract users and developers.

      The report now suggesting Amazon as a possible partner seem strange, given that Amazon only uses older Android versions on budget devices subsidized by payed Amazon services. These sell a lot, attracting Android ports, but that doesn’t help with a high end XR HMD for a completely different user group. Amazon also hasn’t shown any XR ambitions.

      It’s much more likely that LG will switch over to Android XR, now that negotiations for Quest PlayStore access have failed and Meta positioned Horizon OS against Android XR. Both platforms demanding all software sales shuts the door for those trying to stay open, and with LG targeting users of their high end phones, Android XR is better suited. Horizon OS HMDs are expected from Asus as an established brand for dedicated gaming devices, and Lenovo, which won’t face competition from Meta HMDs on their Chinese home market. Horizon OS may stay limited to similar cases not needing PlayStore access, which excludes LG.

      • Guest

        I agree that this likely isn’t because of Meta Horizon OS, but I’m not so sure this is means that LG is going to be an automatic Android XR partner. The Chinese hardware makers haven’t partnered with Google, and other reports besides just Meta have shown that they’ve been a bit sour towards Google because of their overbearing and onerous demands.

        • Christian Schildwaechter

          Android XR might fit LG best if the only alternatives are Horizon OS or an in-house solution. But this might change. Chinese hardware makers can’t use AndroidXR, which isn’t fully open source like Android, but bound to the Google Play Services not available in China. So they need a non-Google/Meta option for at least their domestic market. And Non-Google-Android devices are a HUGE market not only in China.

          AndroidXR doesn’t seem to provide anything revolutionary beyond standard Android plus an OpenXR stack plus Play Services, and neither does Horizon OS. So a third party could release a competing product not requiring services by/payments to either Google or Meta. A potential source is Qualcomm/Goertek, who have been partnered for years, with GoerTek building all Qualcomm XR reference HMDs.

          Together they offer a complete service for companies to create their own Qualcomm SoC based HMDs produced by GoerTek. This includes their own Android variant and OpenXR stack and at least basic versions of features like hand and eye tracking. Unlike Meta or Google, they don’t have to lock down their XR SDK to make their money back with app sales. Instead they sell hardware for a profit, maybe even more if they release an unrestricted XR SDK for free.

    • Guest

      Just me, but I respectfully disagree. LG is not that careless, they wouldn’t get blindsided by this. I suspect that they don’t have too much to hide, and that the wording can be taken at face value. Simply, that Meta was probably too demanding of them and saw them simply as a boxmaker to follow instructions perfectly, rather than a collaboration and a partner with its own input and takes on the hardware design.

      • VrSLuT

        Quite the opposite of Asus holes box stuffers!

    • NicoleJsd

      V20 is like so old. Almost any phone can have battery swapped with some skillz

  • Ondrej

    If I had a nickel for every time LG tried to join a big VR ecosystem of another corporation and then give up, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

    (First Valve, now Meta).

  • Mike

    valve needs to jump all over this like yesterday.

  • It would be pretty ironic if now LG would start to use AndroidXR

  • As so many VR/XR headsets are dropping away I've been deeply worried that Meta no longer is facing the healthy competition that makes them better and more affordable for consumers. With this in mind I kind of hope this partnership falls away so that they have a new competitor with deep pockets to force them to be better instead of get lazy and sit on their laurels.