According to The Information, India’s largest mobile operator is currently in talks with Meta to launch a Horizon OS headset in the country.
The media outlet cites “three people familiar with the situation” who said that talks are taking place but have not yet reached the point where a deal has been concluded.
HorizonOS is Meta’s new name for the Quest operating system, which third-party companies will be able to use in future headsets.
So far, ASUS and Lenovo have confirmed their intention to release Horizon OS headsets.
LG reportedly once planned a Horizon OS headset for 2025, but this deal seems heavily delayed or maybe even canceled.
In addition to its mobile network, Jio also operates an e-commerce platform, a digital payments service and an ecosystem of app-based services, including a messaging platform, a streaming service and a gaming platform.
Meta acquired a 10 percent stake in Jio in 2020 in a deal aimed at integrating some of Jio’s e-commerce services into WhatsApp. Jio’s majority shareholder Mukesh Ambani is also a personal friend of Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg and his wife attended Ambani’s son’s wedding earlier this year.
Meta Horizon OS runs on headsets from ASUS and Lenovo
Meta is renaming its Quest software platform to Meta Horizon OS and opening it to third-party headset makers including ASUS and Lenovo.
Most notably, Jio is currently working with Google to develop a 4G Android phone that it sells for the equivalent of about $50. A Jio VR headset could follow a similar strategy, offering affordable, subsidized hardware with Horizon OS and Jio services pre-installed.
Jio has around 1,800 retail stores in India, which the company could potentially use to demonstrate the headset to potential buyers.
However, it’s unclear how a Jio headset could be significantly cheaper than the upcoming Quest 3S without making major compromises. Jio’s smartphone achieves this by using a lower-end chipset, so the headset could potentially use the Quest 2’s original Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1. Over time, this would significantly limit the amount of Horizon Store content the headset could run and limit its mixed reality capabilities, but these compromises could be deemed necessary to sell well in the Indian market.
We will keep you updated on any future news regarding this potential partnership, which, if it comes to fruition, could expand the virtual consumer world to the world’s most populous country, which is considered one of the world’s most important emerging markets.
