Apple’s foray into virtual reality comes at a time when such hardware sales and general public interest in the VR dream are waning. Companies such as Meta, for example, have previously invested heavily in the idea. Apple has always distanced itself from the so-called metaverse, but interest in the company’s VR and augmented reality (AR) plans has always been strong. Now, instead of eclipsing its competitors’ offerings, Apple may be backing their ideas and bringing more applications to the technology.

This will prove that VR/AR really will be the next chapter in technology and become a major way we interact with and consume technology,” said George Jijiashvili, principal analyst at technology research and consulting firm Omdia. If Apple can really make these kinds of devices more attractive and have really useful apps and features, then it will be a product that everyone will want.”

But so far, the VR/AR industry is struggling. According to market intelligence firm IDC, the VR and AR headset market is down 54 percent from early 2022 to 2023 so far. More than half of those who bought Meta headsets reportedly stopped using the devices within six months of purchase.

However, the debut of Apple’s headset may actually help its rivals bounce back from their lows, said IDC research manager Jitesh Urbani, adding that the company’s announcement “has generated a lot of interest in the market. It helped wake up users, and that’s something Apple has done very well.

Apple has a reputation for bringing to market not-so-new hardware that eventually dominated the market. iPods became the most popular MP3 player and iPhones replaced Blackberries. Launching VR and AR headsets in niche markets was an even bigger gamble.

Apple has flirted with the idea that a major announcement will be made soon, that a “new era” will begin on Monday, and that the opportunity to “code a new world” may be on the horizon. Apple’s last major hardware release was the Apple Watch, which made the smartwatch mainstream and now dominates the market.

Many rumors suggest that Apple is working on a $3,000 headset with a high-end screen, eye- and hand-tracking capabilities and a separate battery pack.

Meta is upgrading its Quest headset to be thinner and have twice the processing power of its predecessor. It will be available this fall for $500. The company will also cut the entry price of its older Quest model by $100 to $300 by the end of this week. If the rumored pricing of Apple’s headset is true, it won’t be a competitor in the gaming space just yet, but is more likely to appeal to enterprise and developer customers. Lenovo’s headset sits in the middle of the pack with a starting price of about $1,300.

Other rival headsets vary in use and price. AR startup Magic Leap released its second headset last year, priced at about $3,300 and focused on enterprise customers. The company is reportedly in talks with Meta about partnering in the AR space. Sony launched the PSVR 2 this year, priced at $550.

One challenge with VR is attracting attention to it outside of the gaming space, and the high pricing of a non-essential device can turn many people off. But George Gigashvili, principal analyst at Omdia, said that as Apple’s name appears in the space, more app developers may begin to devote resources to help expand the headset’s uses. However, Apple must be able to design a headset that doesn’t bother users too much or make them feel uncomfortable.

Apple’s headset may not appeal to the average user unless its price drops significantly and it proves itself with a killer app that stands out in the meta-universe. But now is the time for people to turn their attention back to VR and see what uses it has beyond gaming.

The Meta headset’s lower price should keep it dominating the market for now, said Harmet Singh Walia, a senior analyst at technology research firm Counterpoint Research. Even if the Apple headset can impress, it remains out of reach and unlikely to cause an overnight sensation. Walia added: “I expect something special from the Apple headset, but it won’t be an iPhone moment.”

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Apple has reportedly built a new “structure” within Apple Park to provide a controlled live experience with the headset. The test area is located near Apple Park’s basketball court, near the employee fitness center. Apple will invite media and select developers to try out the headset during the event, and the area will be used for live experience with the headset throughout the summer. Apple may continue to invite developers to Apple Park to test the headset so they can develop applications. There will also be a live experience area in the Steve Jobs Theater to showcase hardware products.

The live experience will showcase Apple’s FaceTime VR, Apple TV + content and game., Apple will caution users with specific medical conditions such as migraines, vertigo, post-concussion syndrome and past craniofacial injuries against using the headset.

If the live experience is similar to previous events, developers and media members will be able to try out the headset immediately after the keynote, and Apple employees will provide a short, controlled demonstration.

Apple AR / VR headsets will not be available immediately after the WWDC launch and will take several months to officially launch. Mass production has not yet begun, and the latest news suggests it will be available by December.

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According to the latest news from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has built a special experience area in its Apple Park headquarters, which can easily demonstrate the Apple Reality Pro (the tentative name of the breaking news) AR / VR headset to the media. The location is the ” basketball court near the employee fitness center”.

Mark Gurman said Apple plans to show off the headset to “some attendees and the media” on June 5, with future demonstrations in the summer. The headset could be available by the end of this year or early 2024.

The headset is currently being simply called “Apple Reality Pro,” but the final official name is unknown. Apple has also registered trademarks for other names such as “Reality One” and “XR Pro”, and the operating system it carries is expected to be “xrOS”.

According to Bloomberg, the planned AR/VR headset demonstration will revolve around several content, including an immersive FaceTime call experience in a virtual reality environment, as well as Apple TV + content and games.

Apple’s WWDC 2023 developer conference will be held on June 6. It is expected to showcase the new features of iOS 17, the new user interface of watchOS 10, the debut of the 15-inch MacBook Air, etc.

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The summary details are as follows:

Name:

Mark Gurman said there are three candidates for Apple’s first headset, Reality Pro, Reality One and XR Pro.

Mark Gurman believes that the XR Pro may be confused with the iPhone XR, so the probability of using this name is not high. Apple may choose between Reality Pro and Reality One.

Material:

Mark Gurman says Apple’s first headset is made of ultra-premium glass, carbon fiber, fiber and aluminum, and it looks like a pair of high-tech ski goggles, with a new magnetic charger and a curved front with an external screen.

Performance:

Mark Gurman says the headset uses the M2 chip, 16GB of RAM, and requires an external battery pack that looks like a larger version of the MagSafe Battery Pack.

GeekBench recently appeared a so-called Apple headset running score record, which was later proved to be faked by users.

Users can control the headset using gaze, hand gestures, and Siri. The headset has speakers installed near the user’s temple, and if users want a more immersive audio experience, they need to use it with AirPods.
Not supported for use with regular glasses

Apple’s first AR/VR headset is not so thick that users can’t use it with regular glasses. Apple provides glasses clips for this.

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@billbil_kun published an article through the French media Dealabs, claiming that Apple’s first AR/VR headset has a total of black, blue, gray, green, pink and a sixth undisclosed color, and there are two storage capacities of 128GB and 256GB option.

MacRumors reported that the media was skeptical about this. First, 6 colors and 2 storage capacities produced at least 12 SKUs. For a headset that sells for as much as $3,000, the cost is high.

Second, the price difference between the 128GB and 256GB storage options is not that big; third, @billbil_kun has previously accurately revealed the specifications of the Galaxy S23 Ultra phone, but there is not much record in Apple’s breaking circle.

So MacRumors thinks the 6 colors, possibly referring to the headband part, may be interchangeable like the AirPods Max ear pads.

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The media outlet believes that Apple’s Reality Pro headset has a design similar to traditional ski goggles, and incorporates some of the design style of Apple Watch and AirPods Max.

There are two physical buttons on the top of the headset, a pressable button on the left to turn on/off a software feature and a digital crown called “Reality Dial” on the right to switch between AR and VR scene views.

The headset also comes with a range of sensors and cameras, but is cleverly camouflaged in a frame.

The left side of the headset’s strap is integral and cannot be removed, only by the right side.

This headset does not have a built-in battery, consumers need to wear an additional battery pack connected to the headset. On the right side there is a buckle that doubles as a charger. We imagine it looks a lot like an inductive Apple Watch charger.

As previously, Ross Young said in a tweet that Apple’s first headset will feature two 1.4-inch screens made of Micro OLED (OLED on Silicon), with a brightness of more than 5,000 nits, a pixel density of 4,000 pixels per inch, and a resolution of 4K per screen.

Apple’s headset, with a brightness higher than 5000 nits, can support the mainstream headset market does not have HDR content.

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Mark Gurman believes that Apple is bound to take the AR/VR headset market on fire after launching its first headset. However, it is difficult for ordinary consumers to afford the high cost of US$3,000. Therefore, TrendForce previously predicted that the sales volume this year will be less than 100,000 units, and the total revenue will be less than US$3 billion.

Mark Gurman believes that although the sales volume of Apple’s first headset will not be very impressive, it will attract consumers’ interest in AR/VR by virtue of its ecological advantages. In the end, Apple will control high-end AR/VR headsets like the iPhone. Show the market.

Mark Gurman also pointed out that consumers who can’t afford Apple headsets will switch to more accessible products from companies such as Meta, which will increase Meta’s market share.

The content of Mark Gurman’s blog post is as follows:

 Apple will dominate the high-end headset market priced over $2,000, while Meta dominates the low-to-mid-priced headset market.

 Apple’s popularization of headsets will benefit Meta, and many users who cannot buy Apple headsets will choose to buy Meta products.

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Delaware-based shell company “Deep Dive LLC” filed a trademark application for “xrProOS” designed using Apple’s SF Pro font in Argentina, Turkey, and the Philippines on May 18, according to online records. Apple is likely behind both filings by the same company that filed to trademark “xrOS” earlier this month in New Zealand using the SF Pro font and is expected to have something to do with early action to protect the intellectual property related to its headsets.

Deep Dive LLC also filed for xrProOS on May 18 in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, but without the SF Pro font style. Records show that the company first filed for the trademark in Jamaica on April 27. Jamaica is typically where Apple first files trademarks related to future products, as the lack of a searchable online trademark database in the region helps the company keep secrets.

The company’s trademark application in Argentina includes an image of xrProOS.

The company’s trademark application in Argentina includes an image of xrProOS, which is the name of Apple’s headset operating system, so it remains to be seen if the xrProOS name fits Apple’s plans. xrProOS would reflect the “Pro” branding.

Other previously reported trademark applications that may be related to Apple’s headset include Reality One, Reality Processor, Optica, and Deep Screen, but it is unclear if any of these names will actually be used, some of which were filed by an independent shell called Immersive Health Solutions LLC. Some of these applications were submitted by an independent shell company called Immersive Health Solutions LLC.

Apple is expected to unveil the AR/VR headset and associated developer tools at its WWDC23 keynote on June 5, and possibly release it to the public later this year, with the device expected to offer virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) The combination of functions, which can be controlled by hand and eye tracking, is expected to sell for $3,000 and will also be equipped with an external battery pack.

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According to Mark Gurman, Apple’s key executives have a “major gathering” once a year to review the headset’s development progress, and hundreds of executives got to experience the product last week.

What’s interesting about Gurman’s comments is that Apple’s design team earlier said the AR headset wasn’t ready to launch this year, yet Apple CEO Cook and COO Jeff Williams chose to ignore those concerns, probably believing that any further delays could give Apple’s competitors a greater advantage and so they had to rush the release.

Judging by previous reviews, Apple’s headset, likely to be named “Reality Pro,” could be the company’s most “polarizing” product to date, but for the Oculus founder, the head-mounted wearable device But for the founder of Oculus, the head-mounted wearable clearly made a great first impression.

However, given Luckey’s and Oculus’ popularity in the VR industry, some in the media believe he chose Apple to partner with for marketing and momentum.

For now, though, even if Luckey fully endorses the product, there’s no guarantee that the headset will be 100% successful when it hits the market. According to earlier estimates, Apple may only ship about 300,000 units of “Reality Pro” this year, although the unit price appears to be expected to reach $3000 (currently about RMB 20880).

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Apple plans to unveil the headset at WWDC in June, and much of the agenda at the event will be related to developing AR / VR software, according to the report. The headset is not expected to start mass production until September due to manufacturing delays, but it is only mentioned that Apple “expects to have some production issues,” without giving specific details.

The headset is expected to have an internal screen for VR, while it will also allow users to experience AR functionality through an external camera. To put it simply, it can present you with content from both the real world and the virtual world, while you can also experience content from the virtual world alone, a combination we generally call “mixed reality (MR).

The Wall Street Journal notes that the headset is “experimental” and “unconventional” compared to most of Apple’s other products, priced at about $3,000 and comes with an External battery, you can put the battery in the waist or pocket. The report also mentions that FaceTime, Apple Fitness+ and gaming are probably the three main areas of application for the headset.

According to some of the sources cited in the report, while the selling point of the headset remains to be seen, its features are “way ahead of / far ahead of the competition”. The headset is said to offer “a higher level of performance and immersion” than competitors like Facebook parent Meta’s Quest Pro.

Apple has already announced that WWDC 2023 will begin with an Apple keynote on June 5, which means the headset could be in front of the public in just a few weeks, so can’t wait?

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