According to Tianfeng Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple’s mixed reality headset device could be delayed in mass production shipments until the second half of 2023, mainly because of “software-related issues.
It was previously known as realityOS, but Bloomberg says Apple has since named it xrOS, and it’s worth noting that XR here refers to expanded reality, a generic term for the VR/AR/MR category that has nothing to do with iPhone XR.
He believes the parts for this product will still be shipped in mass quantities in the first half of 2023, but the fully assembled headset device may not start shipping in mass until the second half of the year. That means the delay only involves shipments and won’t affect production efforts, so there’s a good chance Apple will release it a few months before mass production.
As it stands now, it’s entirely possible that Apple will release the headset at WWDC 2023 next June, along with an SDK for developers to develop AR / VR apps for it.
Ming-Chi Kuo thinks Apple’s headset will be an expensive niche product and predicts the company will ship fewer than 500,000 units in 2023. That figure is below the consensus of other analysts (800,000 to 1.2 million units).
He also said that Apple’s shipping delays could cause cash flow pain for suppliers, and that head-up displays are considered “the next key growth driver for the optics industry. Suppliers including Largan, Genius, Cowell, Primax and others thought to be in the headset supply chain could be hurt in performance by the “short-term market sentiment” of the delay.
▲ Ian Zelbo draws the concept map
