It’s been awhile since we last heard about Apple and its endeavours into the world of VR and AR. Back in 2019, reports at the time indicated that the company will work on a headset first, with sleeker glasses to come a year later. Now, a Bloomberg report has more details on what that roadmap looks like.
According to the report, Apple intends to first make a niche and expensive VR headset. So expensive, in fact, that it will be far more expensive than other VR headsets made by other companies. To match the price, it will also be equipped with the company’s most advance and powerful chips. These are said to be better than even the company’s latest M1 chips.
This expensive VR headset will then serve as the precursor to the more mainstream AR glasses. The idea here is for Apple to invest in the underling tech first, and get content developers ready for the latter product.
That being said, none of this is set in stone yet. The VR headset is still in its late prototype stage. Which means Apple can still change, or scrap, the project entirely. Similarly, the AR glasses are still in the early “architecture phase, meaning the company is still working on its underlying tech. Even if all goes smoothly, it will be several years before consumers lay eyes on it.
It’s an interesting strategy for Apple to adopt, to say the least. VR headsets in general are already quite prohibitively expensive. To make one that’s even more so will definitely mean less units being sold. And even for the so-called mainstream AR glasses, it remains to be seen if it will truly be mainstream, or get stuck in the enterprise realm like the Google Glass and Microsoft HoloLens.
(Source: Bloomberg. Images: iDropNews / Martin Hajek, MacRumors.)
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