Word on the street was that ByteDance, the China-based company best known as the owner of TikTok, was reportedly considering exiting the virtual reality industry. The information came from an undisclosed source, claiming that the head of Pico, potentially referring to CEO and founder Zhou Hongwei, had been informed during a visit to ByteDance’s headquarters by founder Zhang Yiming that the company intended to eventually discontinue its VR projects.

However, ByteDance refuted this report, stating that it was untrue and reaffirming their commitment to long-term investment in extended reality (XR) business. Furthermore, ByteDance emphasized its intentions to maintain regular operations and enhance product technology, particularly referencing Pico and VR.

Despite these statements, Pico has not announced any new hardware following these developments. The company had previously announced bundle prices and OpenXR interoperability to encourage more developers to create VR apps for Pico.

However, the year 2023 has not seen significant surprises from Pico, a company that was once considered a major competitor to Meta in the VR space. At the same time, the text alludes to a new “spatial computer” from another company, led by Tim Cook, which is anticipated to mark the most intricate product launch in the company’s history.