After a hiatus of rumors regarding Apple’s mixed reality and AR headsets, there have been lot of stories about these two products in the past few weeks. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman talks about Apple’s plan for its long-rumored mixed reality headset.
According to Gurman, at first, he doesn’t believe that Apple’s first mixed reality headset will be a Mac, iPhone, or iPad replacement. Instead, he bets that it will focus on three main areas: gaming, media consumption, and communication. He writes:
Gaming should be a strong focus of the machine, especially given that it will have multiple processors, a fan, extremely high-resolution displays and its own App Store. Look for Apple to position the device as a dream for game developers. Next, media consumption. I expect Apple to work with media partners to create content that can be watched in VR on the device. Third, communications. Look for Animojis and a VR FaceTime-like experience to be the new-age Zoom.
Although Apple’s future about its mixed reality headset looks promising, it will be all about developers and customers supporting the product. In October, Gurman talked about the fact that this product will be “pricey” as the company plans to launch the mixed reality headset as early as 2022.He wrote at the time:
Apple is planning to unleash its own pricey device with advanced chips, displays, sensor, and avatar-based features as early as next year.
Earlier this year, a report claimed that this new mixed reality device could cost at least $3,000, which corroborates what Gurman said of this device being pricey. As Apple is already blowing away its users with the new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, it’s only a matter of time until the company can combine all these pieces together.
In this other newsletter, Gurman said that this headset would have “both AR and VR capabilities,” and what Apple is aiming for is a “mixed reality experience that can handle games in high-quality virtual reality.” He wrote back then:
Apple’s first headset will be of the mixed reality variety. That means it will have both AR and VR capabilities. While gaming can be done in both environments, virtual reality is what you want for seriously high-performance games with top-tier graphics. For Apple’s first headset, that’s what it’s shooting for: a mixed reality experience that can handle games in high-quality virtual reality with snappy chips and high-end displays.
Although Gurman is betting on the mixed reality headset to be the first product of this new segment Apple is planning to enter, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has talked a lot about the company’s plan regarding a future AR headset.
According to Kuo, Apple’s AR headset will have a processor “with the same computing power level as the Mac.” He also believes that the chip design will be the most significant difference between the Apple AR headset and its competitors. The analyst writes:
[I]t has Mac-level (PC-level) computing power, (2) it can operate independently without relying on a Mac (PC) or an iPhone (phone), and (3) it supports a comprehensive range of applications rather than specific applications.
As for now, the analyst also believes that this headset will launch in 4Q22 equipped with two processors. “The higher-end processor will have similar computing power as the M1 for Mac, whereas the lower-end processor will be in charge of sensor-related computing.”
Everything currently points out that Apple will launch its first headset product in 2022. Which one of these products is you most excited about? Tell us in the comment section below.
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