Although Apple’s plans to enter the AR smart glasses marketplace may come as no surprise to many, new information tells us that’s not all the tech-giants have planned for the XR space.
According to a recent report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is also planning to release a “mostly virtual reality” standalone headset in 2022 to compete with current market-leaders Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2. Gurman adds:
“It [the VR headset] will display an all-encompassing 3-D digital environment for gaming, watching video, and communicating. It will also feature AR functionality, including the ability to overlay images and information over a view of the real world.”
While unconfirmed, the report claims Apple’s VR headset will run on a brand-new chip that’s even more powerful than the M1 currently used in Apple’s latest line of next-gen Macbook Pros released in Q4 2020.
The company has also supposedly installed a fan in the headset’s prototype design (codenamed N301). Still, there have been no assurances this design will remain the same as the project progresses.
With regards to pricing, Gurman’s report tells us the Apple headset will likely “be far more expensive than those from rivals, which cost about $300 to $900.”
Instead of targeting the mass market, it’s believed Apple’s VR device will be sold in limited quantities at a high price-point through a select number of Apple stores, suggesting that the headset will serve more as a XR market research tool than a flagship product.
As much as we’d like to give set prices, official release dates, and full tech-specs, Apple’s stringent privacy policies mean we can only speculate on rumors for now.
However, XR Today will be keeping a close eye on all AR/VR developments emerging from Cupertino over the next 12 months to ensure our readers are first in line to hear the latest Apple updates.
