This week, telecoms giant Reliance Jio announced that it partnered with Meta to debut the Horizon OS platform on a new Jio-brand XR device, moving the Quest-based framework to a third-party VR headset.
The move comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reintroduced the Horizon platform as an open service for promoting VR content creation on third-party headsets outside the Quest ecosystem.
The partnership focuses on bringing the Horizon service to a new Jio VR headset. The news comes just a year after Jio debuted its VR headset, JioDive, to accompany its smart glasses product.
At the 2023 Indian Mobile Congress (IMC), Jio unveiled the spatial computing device Jio Glass for the first time. In addition to its range of electronic devices, such as laptops, smartphones, and broadband tools, the company has ventured into the XR market with the JioGlass head-mounted display.
Reliance Jio acquired the JioGlass solution to support XR development in India and its global clients, working on creating a hardware, software, and solutions ecosystem to drive XR technologies.
Meta Horizon Open OS to Create Vision Pro Competition
Meta has recently introduced “Ocean,” a new open-source, cross-platform framework for creating computer vision and mixed/augmented reality applications. Mirroring the recent news of Horizon landing on Jio hardware.
The Ocean framework is interoperable and supports applications across various operating systems and devices, such as iOS, Android, Quest, macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Meta released Ocean under an MIT license to ensure cross-platform compatibility, openness, and efficiency. The Ocean framework includes tools to aid developers in tasks related to mixed/augmented reality application development, such as supporting geometry, media handling, networking, and rendering.
Meta has also opened its Meta Horizon OS, which powers the Quest product portfolio, to third-party developers. This allows a broader range of developers to create applications for Meta’s portfolio of XR products.
Moreover, Meta is adopting an open approach, providing developers with a customizable framework for specific solutions. Additionally, Zuckerberg mentioned that Meta collaborates with industry leaders, including Lenovo, ASUS, and Xbox, to develop headsets designed for specific use cases.
