What to expect from Meta Connect 2024 keynote on September 25 at 1pm ET: new AI features powered by Llama 3.1, cheaper Quest 3S headset, and more
Umar Shakir / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
Meta Connect has previously been a venue for mixed-reality hardware and metaverse plans, including the Quest Pro mixed-reality showcase at Connect 2022. This preview indicates the 2024 event is set to pair that hardware agenda with Llama 3.1-based AI features.
The planned lower-cost headset follows Meta’s report that Quest 3 sales exceeded its expectations, while the company was also signaling that the next Llama generation would demand far more training compute. Together, those threads make Connect a test of how Meta connects AI investment to consumer devices.
First-order effects
- Meta is expected to use Connect to put Llama 3.1-powered features in front of its consumer audience, making the model line a product-facing part of the keynote rather than solely an AI-development initiative.
- A cheaper Quest 3S, if introduced as expected, would give prospective VR and mixed-reality buyers a lower-price entry point within Meta’s Quest lineup.
Second-order effects
- A lower-priced Quest model would increase pressure on rival headset makers to justify premium pricing through hardware differentiation, content, or ecosystem advantages.
- Pairing AI announcements with headset news makes developers and partners more likely to evaluate Meta’s AI and immersive platforms together, rather than as separate product bets.
Third-order effects
- If Meta repeatedly couples accessible wearables with AI model updates, competition may shift from standalone VR hardware toward device ecosystems where assistants, models, and interfaces reinforce one another.
- The economics remain a constraint: Meta’s stated need for substantially more compute for Llama’s next generation suggests that expanding AI features will depend on translating infrastructure spending into durable consumer product use.
The trend: Meta Connect is becoming a showcase for an integrated consumer-platform strategy that combines lower-barrier immersive hardware with increasingly capable AI models.