Meta (Facebook)

According to reports, Meta has decided to cancel one of its VR projects that was planned for 2027. This device was to be a high-end product, similar to Apple's Vision Pro - with a similar high price tag. Following the poor market reaction for Apple's Vision Pro, Meta decided to scrap the project.

The original Oculus Rift

Meta was planning to use OLED microdisplays in its upcoming high-end headset, as these are the best performing displays for such products. It is reported that one of the reasons that Meta is not proceeding with its project is the high price of the OLEDs. These are expensive displays indeed - according to some estimates, Apple is paying $350 for each display, which means around $700 for each headset. On the other hand, it is estimated that OLED microdisplay prices are set to drop sharply in the near future as new capacity comes online, and new players (including Samsung and LGD) start producing displays. 

Jeff Yurek is a former creative professional turned marketer passionate about storytelling and technology. He is currently Vice President of Marketing at Nanosys, Inc. in Silicon Valley, Calif., and serves as the Vice Chair of Marketing for the Society for Information Display. Here's an interview we conducted with Jeff towards Display Week 2023.

Hello Jeff! Can you tell us what to expect from SID Display Week 2023? 

Display Week is the best place to experience and learn about cutting-edge display technologies and applications. The program for Display Week 2023 is packed as always with valuable courses, technical talks, business presentations, and amazing technology demos.

Reports from Korea suggest that Meta (Facebook) is in talks with both Samsung Display and LG Display, regarding the supply of OLED microdisplays and microLED microdisplays for its future AR and VR glasses.

According to the reports, dozens of executives from Meta have met with executives from LG Display and Samsung Display, and the discussions are still ongoing. According to other reports, Meta plans to use OLED displays in its upcoming VR glasses, and MicroLEDs in AR glasses that will hit the market at around 2026.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported its preliminary financial results for Q3 2022, with revenues in the range of $7.4 to $7.6 million, an increase of 28%-31% from last year.

eMagin says it sees strong demand in the military market, increased revenue from medical customers and also increased R&D contract revenues.

Reports suggest that Meta (Facebook) is developing two new VR headsets, with very different display technologies - one with mini-LED displays, and the other with OLED microdisplays (as we reported in August 2021).

The Oculus Quest Pro (codenamed Cambria) will be based on mini-LED displays, . Meta aims to launch the Quest Pro in the summer of 2022 and hopes to sell 3 million headsets by the end of the year.

According to a report from Korea, Facebook recently hired a large number of OLED engineers, in Korea, through Facebook's Reality Lab. The company is now hiring more OLED experts to work at its Reality Lab US offices.

Facebook new job openings includes many roles in OLED display technologies. The company does not aim to start producing OLED, of course, but to secure technology to develop innovative OLED displays and applications in VR and AR devices.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin has been developing direct-emission OLED microdisplay (also called directly-patterned, or dPd) for many years, and is considered to be the leading company - the closest one to commercialize such a display. A dPd will enable much higher efficiency/brightness compared to current designs based on color filters.

In the past eMagin reported of several leading companies that have licensed the technology and/or are working with the company towards the design of custom dPd OLED displays for future AR/VR products. In 2017 for example eMagin reported of a Tier-1 CE company that licensed its dPd tech, and in 2020 the company said it started a new consumer-related AR development project for a next-generation display for a Tier-1 customer.

Oculus (Facebook) announced its new affordable VR headset, the Oculus Go. This $199 device will launch early next year for $199 and Facebook hopes that this will be a step towards its goal to get one billion people to use its VR products.

One of the ways that Oculus used to lower the cost of to Go headset is to switch from an OLED to an LCD. Oculus says that this is a "fast-switch LCD". It's too early to say how this display will compare to the current OLED used in the Oculus Rift. Looking at the slide above, it seems that the Go uses a single 2560x1440 LCD.

The VR market is set for very fast growth in the next few years, and OLED displays are the best displays for this market - mostly because of the fast response time which is required for such applications. OLEDs also offer, of course, a better image quality, better colors, lighter weigh and better efficiency.

As companies such as Apple, Samsung, Google, Facebook and Sony enter this market, display makers are starting to develop products specifically for VR headsets. According to a report from Business Korea, the major problem with VR today is the screen density - a good VR experience requires a screen resolution that is at least three times higher than that of a mobile phone display (which is currently at around 500 PPI).

Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, gave a short keynote speech last week about Virtual Reality. Mark talks about the collaboration between Oculus (owned by Facebook) and Samsung, and specifically mentions the OLED displays - which are the only displays that can deliver a good comfortable VR experience.

Here's Mark exact quote, you can find it at about 3:45 in the full-keynote video above: "Samsung is the only company that can deliver, at scale, the low-persistence OLED screens to give a good, comfortable VR experience ,and that’s because these OLED screens are the only screens that can update faster than your eye. No other screen and display or company can deliver this experience.".