Two reliable sources report independently of each other that Apple will present its first data glasses in the spring. The company apparently gives the AV VR headset top priority and even lets the development of iOS 17 slide.
Virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) were big topics at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Numerous companies presented contributions to Meta’s planned Metaverse, HTC presented a new high-end headset with the Vive XR Elite. This also increases the pressure on Apple, because the group has been emphasizing the importance of the technology for several years, but has not yet delivered.
Last time it was called Tim Cook
According to the accurate analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the main reason for the renewed delay is massive problems in development. Mechanical components failed in drop tests and lacked software development tools. Mass production is not expected to start until the end of the second quarter or in the third quarter of 2023. Apple will probably therefore only present the headset in the spring at a special event or as part of its WWDC developer conference in early June.
Apple connoisseur Mark Gurman from “Bloomberg” yesterday agreed with Kuo’s forecast. He assumes that Tim Cook will release the glasses before WWDC, probably under the name “Reality Pro”. According to Gurman, sources say Apple has already sent some high-profile developers devices to demonstrate some apps.
Initially, the data glasses should only be accessible to other developers in order to expand the ecosystem. The operating system of the headset is still called “Borealis” internally, later it will be called xrOS. Gurman predicts that the headset will not go on sale until the fall.
He also writes about many problems with hardware, software and services that Apple still has to solve. In addition, marketing and sales have not yet been clarified. Nevertheless, the glasses are the most important product of the year for the company and therefore have top priority. Apple even took hardware and software engineers and money from other departments for this, according to Gurman.
Further product innovations this year should be correspondingly boring. Among other things, the upcoming MacBooks Pro will only receive new chips with an unchanged design, a high-end configuration of the Mac Pro has been deleted and apart from a possible 15-inch MacBook Air, not much else can be expected from the Macs 2023, writes Gurman.
His forecasts for iPads, Apple Watch, AirPods, Homepod or Apple TV are similar. And when it comes to operating systems, the company is also said to be fully focused on xrOS. With iOS 17 or iPad OS 17, the innovations may therefore have been very limited.
After all, the hardware of upcoming iPhones could be impressive, writes Gurman. Among other things, he was told that all four models would have displays with the “Dynamic Island”, and that the Pro models should have titanium instead of steel frames and haptic volume buttons.