“Consumer Electronics Show” held in Las Vegas (USA) is one of the most important technology fairs in the world. When it happened last week, many companies introduced new products that take advantage of virtual and augmented reality.
Apple has taken a step back on this one, but everyone has been talking about the tech giant’s latest project: the mixed reality headset.
Specifically, it concerns glasses that look like ski goggles and enable both augmented and virtual reality experiences.
In the first, what is available in the real world is completed digitally. With the latter you are in a purely virtual environment – video games, for example. There should be possible uses for orientation, education, and even video conferences as well as entertainment. Virtual transitions to the real world should also be possible through glasses.
This headset was already considered in 2017 and should be released in 2019, “Bloomberg”. After various delays it will finally be ready in the spring of 2023. Under the name “Reality Pro”, the device is expected to be released before the Apple developer conference in June.
Is the interest big enough?
The hype is huge. This would be the first time Apple has released an entirely new product in a long time. Some software developers have taken delivery of the device for testing. For this purpose, a brand new operating system called xrOS was developed. That said, Apple isn’t really much more exciting on the quiz this year.
The device is said to initially cost $3,000. It’s probably still too expensive for “mass fitness”, as Apple achieved with the iPhone or Apple Watch.
And it is precisely this relevance for the masses that is the big question mark behind these big Apple news for 2023. Competitor Meta has already released similar mixed reality glasses called “Quest Pro” with very modest success. Besides Apple and Meta, other companies are working on similar technologies. The trajectory and possible application scenarios of such applications are developing rapidly.
Therefore, the main question is whether Apple will be as successful in this innovation as the iPhone. If you look at Apple’s sales in 2022, “wearables” (as if this headset will be one), the iPad and Mac together make up about half of iPhone sales.