According to Taiwan’s Electronic Times, the supply chain revealed that Apple’s first headset will be postponed to June mass production, in addition, the model originally prototyped by PEGATRON, was determined to be transferred to Lixin OEM assembly.
Supply chain sources have reported that PEGATRON and Lixin have docked their systems and personnel in March, and sources say that PEGATRON’s Shanghai Changshuo plant will also be sold to Lixin, and PEGATRON has no comment on the above rumors.
This is the first time mainland manufacturers in the Apple launched new products on the assembly of OEM, Apple products in the past are Taiwan manufacturers involved in the development, and mass production, and then mainland manufacturers took over one after another, coupled with Apple’s emphasis on headset devices, this case regardless of Apple, mainland manufacturers and Taiwan manufacturers is the beginning of a new era.
AR/VR devices and meta-universe have recently cooled significantly, recent news pointed out that Meta’s Quest Pro product life cycle shipments of only about 300,000 units. Related suppliers estimate that Meta’s new Quest 3’s annual shipment size is estimated at only 100,000 units. Some vendors also pointed out that Quest 3 was original to be launched in the first half of the year, but now the mass production is delayed to June and will be launched in the second half of the year.
Industry analysis, in this case, PEGATRON withdraws from the Apple headset, and Lixin takes over, it is not a bad thing for PEGATRON. Apple orders are mainly EMS, large volume to have profit space, and this product even if the follow-up has great potential, in the short term in the hardware and software has not yet mature, the volume is difficult to enlarge, not to mention the customer has to spread the production risk considerations.
It is reported that Apple’s first headset product codenamed N301, the supply chain was originally planned for the first quarter of mass production, now rumored to be postponed to June, all walks of life expect Apple will release this product in June WWDC, due to the delay in listing and mass production time, whether it can reach the original expected annual production of 1.5 million units, the supply chain is not sure.
Apple CEO Cook recently said in an interview that in almost everything Apple has done, there are many people questioning, but he is very confident in the impact of AR / VR. Cook noted that the focus is on whether Apple can somehow make a major breakthrough that no one else has done, whether it can own the major technologies, and that he’s not interested in putting together what others have. Apple is seen as the last savior of the XR devices after a lull in AR/VR and meta-universe talk from all walks of life and rumors of lower shipments of VR devices from factories like Meta. However, the headset device in consideration of power, aesthetics, heat dissipation and other conditions, is still difficult to meet the general glasses weight requirements, in this case, Apple can drive market enthusiasm, remains to be seen.
