LG Electronics has paused its extended reality (XR) collaboration with Meta Platforms Inc., just three months after announcing their joint effort to develop XR devices, including virtual headsets. According to Korea JoongAng Daily, LG is now exploring a potential partnership with Amazon to provide software and an operating system for XR devices it plans to release next year.
New Partnership Prospects
Industry insiders indicate that LG Electronics is actively seeking a new partner for its XR headset initiative. Amazon has emerged as a strong candidate, largely due to its extensive Amazon Prime subscriber base, which exceeds 200 million globally. This subscriber base is seen as a key asset for the successful launch of an XR device. Given Amazon's lack of a proprietary XR operating system, there is speculation that LG might use the Android OS or develop its own WebOS, currently used in its TV products.
The decision to slow down the collaboration with Meta is attributed to a lack of synergy between the two companies. An industry source told The Korea Economic Daily that LG requested the pause because the partnership did not deliver the anticipated benefits. Initially, the collaboration aimed to combine LG's hardware expertise with Meta's AI capabilities to produce an XR headset by the first half of 2025, intended to outperform Apple's latest mixed reality headset, Vision Pro.
Despite reports, LG initially denied terminating the deal with Meta, stating that it is merely “controlling its pace.” Products from the collaboration were expected to integrate Meta's Horizon Worlds mixed reality platform with content and services from LG's TV business. The potential for on-device AI integration, leveraging Meta's large language models, was also being explored.
Ongoing Challenges in the XR Market
The XR market, which includes virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies, remains highly competitive. LG Group affiliates such as LG Display Co. and LG Innotek Co. are leaders in XR headset components. LG Display is advancing micro-organic light-emitting diode (OLEDoS) technology, while LG Innotek specializes in premium lens manufacturing. Other tech giants, including Google, Apple, and Microsoft, are also developing VR and AR devices to establish their own metaverses. Samsung Electronics, for instance, has partnered with Google and Qualcomm Technologies to release an XR device next year.
