We were told that a few weeks ago Apple’s AR/VR headset was in trouble — but according to respected industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, it’s in poor health and on track for a January 2023 launch. That could be bad news for Facebook and oculus Owner Meta: According to Kuo, it is reducing its investments in VR because it sold its Oculus headsets at a loss and a recession is looming. Just as Meta takes his eyes off the VR Sphere, Apple could be preparing to launch it into orbit.
The report is by Ming-Chi Kuo medium Blog, where he shares his insights on all kinds of technologies. When it comes to AR and VR, according to Kuo, “Apple is a game changer for the headset industry” – but Sony is also a major player. “Sony’s influence in the gaming/multimedia entertainment industry is stronger than Meta’s.” He’s expecting them PSVR2 to hit the market in early 2023 and push VR much further into the mainstream. Both Microsoft and Valve are coming to the party later, but “both are beneficial to the entire industry.”
Because of this, Kuo believes Apple will be a VR game changer.
Apple’s AR/VR headset will change the game
Although Apple has spoken almost exclusively about augmented reality, Kuo believes mixed reality and fully immersive media and games will be very popular on his headset. While the headset is the most complex product Apple has developed to date – at least what we know of; I imagine the Apple Car even more complex – Kuo predicts that history will repeat itself: Apple will bring the product to market and it will be so good that the entire industry will rush to copy it. This will propel the headset industry “into the next phase of rapid growth and benefit the associated ecosystem of services and content.”
Kuo’s projected January 2023 launch date aligns with other rumors suggesting the headset will go into production in the fall; We know from clues in App Store logs and code that Apple has a new operating system, realityOS, that has been in development for some time. What we don’t know yet is the price.
I hope the February rumors of a price of $3.5k are way off the mark. That was according to tech site The Information, which suggested the high suggested price was because the BOM – the cost of all components – was over $500. But the BOM for mine iPhone 13 procorresponding Technical Insights at least $570 — and Apple isn’t selling that for three and a half grand. I assume that the Apple AR/VR headset will be expensive, especially in the beginning. But I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it won’t be quite as expensive as previous rumors suggest.