Apple’s oft-rumored and yet-to-be-materialized mixed-reality headset is now said to be introduced in June at the company’s annual developer conference. The AR/VR headset has apparently been in the works since 2015! It was supposed to be revealed in June 2022 before being pushed to January of this year, then delayed again to “spring”, only to now be pushed once again all the way to June.
Of course, all this information comes from unconfirmed rumors, so whether this number of delays actually occurred internally at Cupertino, only Apple knows for sure. The point is – it’s been a long time coming, and there’s still a bit of a wait.
The latest delay comes due to hardware and software issues that still need to be ironed out. The decision on the latest postponement was reportedly made earlier this month. Although the device will be announced at Apple’s WorldWide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June, it is not expected to be available until “later this year”. Today’s report warns that “the timing can always change again,” so keep that in mind. On the other hand, Apple is “committed to bringing the device to market by the end of 2023, if possible,” for what it’s worth.
The mixed reality headset will be Apple’s “next big initiative,” according to the report, which is a nice way of saying it’s the next product category it wants to monetize in order to reduce its reliance on iPhone sales, which now account for more than 50% of its turnover. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but what remains to be seen is whether Apple can work enough magic to make this whole idea seem worthwhile to mainstream consumers. So far all headsets have failed. Of course, Apple has a track record of innovating to make new products “just work” where the competition struggled, so let’s see what happens. Then again, the company apparently plans to charge around $3,000 for its headset, making it pretty niche by default.
The headset may be the hero product in a year that will reportedly be characterized by a lack of significant changes to the Apple Watch, AirPods or iPad. The headset reportedly includes a “Mac-grade” M2 chip, a pair of 4K VR displays, and “an extensive array of cameras” for AR. It also runs new software called xrOS (for “Xtended Reality”).
