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A participant uses a hand tracking feature with Facebook’s Oculus Quest VR headset during the Oculus Connect 6 conference in San Jose, Calif., September 26, 2019.
Photographer: Michael Short / Bloomberg
Photographer: Michael Short / Bloomberg
Apple Inc.’s first crack on a headset is designed to be an expensive, niche precursor to a more ambitious augmented reality product that will take longer to develop, according to people familiar with the matter.
The initial device encountered several development hurdles and the company has cautious sales expectations, illustrating how difficult it will be to disseminate this nascent consumer technology.
As a mostly virtual reality device, it will display a full 3D digital environment for games, video watching and communication. AR functionality, the ability to overlay images and information on a real world view, will be more limited. Apple plans to launch the product as early as 2022, against Oculus from Facebook Inc., PlayStation VR from Sony Corp. and headsets from HTC Corp., the people said. They asked not to be identified to discuss private plans.
The typical Apple playbook involves taking into account emerging consumer technologies, such as music players, smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches, and making them reliable and easy to use for everyone. This time around, however, Apple isn’t looking to create an iPhone-like success for its first headset. Instead, the company is developing a high-end niche product that will prepare developers and outside consumers for its possible more traditional AR glasses.
Plans suggest that Apple’s first headset will be much more expensive than its competitors, which cost between $ 300 and $ 900. Some Apple insiders believe the company will only sell one headset per day per retail store. Apple has around 500 stores, so in this scenario, annual sales would be just over 180,000 units – excluding other sales channels. That would put it on par with other expensive Apple products, such as the $ 5,999 Mac Pro desktop computer. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment.
Attendees visit the Sony PlayStation virtual reality game booth during the Gamescom video game industry event in Cologne, Germany, August 20, 2019.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi / Bloomberg
Apple aims to include some of its most advanced and powerful chips in the headset, as well as much higher resolution displays than those in existing VR products. Some of the chips tested in the device outperform Apple’s Mac M1 processors. The company also designed the headset with a fan, which it typically tries to avoid on mobile products, people said.
The headset, named the N301, is at an advanced stage of the prototype, but is not yet finalized, so the company’s plans could change or be scrapped entirely before launch. The AR glasses, codenamed N421, are at an early stage known as “architecture,” meaning Apple is still working on the underlying technologies. This product is several years away, people say, although Apple has already aimed as early as 2023 to unveil it.
Powerful processors and the inclusion of a fan initially led to a too big and heavy device with some concern about neck strain in early testing. Apple has done away with the space VR gadgets typically reserve for users who need to wear glasses, which brings the headset closer to the face and helps reduce waist size. And to address visually impaired consumers, he has developed a system where personalized prescription lenses can be inserted into the headset on VR displays, the people said.
This may expose Apple to regulations governing the sale of prescription products. The company typically sells its devices in dozens of countries, many of which have different prescription rules. Apple is also discussing how it would implement point-of-sale prescriptions online and in retail stores.
Originally, Apple planned to include less powerful processors and offload much of the work to a hub in a user’s home that would wirelessly stream content to the headset. But that idea was crushed by Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer at the time, Bloomberg News reported last year. The headset is designed to work as a stand-alone device, meaning it can run on a battery rather than plugging into a wall or Mac. It’s similar to Facebook’s latest VR product, while Sony requires a PlayStation game console.
Read more: Apple’s AR and VR headset plans changed by internal differences
To further reduce the weight of the device, Apple plans to use a fabric exterior. It’s a change from the metallic designs Apple uses for most products, although it has used plastic for devices like AirPods, which need to be lightweight, and fabrics for the HomePod speaker. to improve acoustics.
Prototypes of the headset, some of which are roughly the size of an Oculus Quest, include external cameras to enable certain AR features. The company is testing the use of cameras for manual tracking and is working on a feature that allows a user to virtually tap in the air to enter text. It is not known if this function will be ready for the first version of the device or if it will ever leave the exploratory phase.
The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted some developments, with Apple’s hardware engineers only able to work on certain days from the office. The company also faced delays in performing user testing and collecting data. This slowed down some decisions in the engineering process.
The company is also still grappling with the content and features it intends to deliver with the device. Virtual reality is still a somewhat nascent technology, with content beyond games still relatively limited. Apple last year acquired a company called NextVR, which recorded events such as concerts and sports games in virtual reality. There is also talk of bundling an App Store with the device, which runs on an operating system called “rOS” within the company.
If Apple goes ahead with the VR headset, it would be a precursor to a possible pair of AR glasses – a product the company sees as much more mainstream but also more difficult to launch. Microsoft Corp. HoloLens 2 and Magic Leap’s headset, which focuses on augmented reality over virtual reality, sell for $ 3,500 and $ 2,295, respectively. HoloLens primarily focuses on professional use cases, while Magic Leap fell far short of the early hype and jobs reduced last year.
A visitor attempts a Magic Leap One during Virtuality Paris 2019 on November 21, 2019 in Paris, France.
Photographer: Chesnot / Getty Images Europe
Apple first added AR to the iPhone in 2017, enabling new games and mobile apps like those that allow you to virtually place furniture in your living room before you buy it. Apple CEO Tim Cook said virtual reality and augmented reality have potential, but AR is the biggest opportunity.
The AR glasses need to be packed with small, powerful and efficient electronics to overlay notifications, map directions, and other information while supporting internet connectivity and high battery life. It’s a huge technical challenge. Even Oculus, which released its first all-in-one VR headset in 2019, won’t include AR features in its first bezels this year.
Getting to this point requires years of work on lenses, hardware and software, component miniaturization, production techniques, and content creation. Above all, getting most people to wear a computer on their face, however small, is difficult. This in part doomed Google’s first attempt at mainstream AR glasses several years ago.
By developing a less common initial headset, Apple can invest in the underlying technologies, consumer education, content development, and developer relationships to give its eventual AR glasses the best chance for success – when they do. are ready.
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