Report: Apple’s VR headset will be an expensive, high-end standalone niche

The last time we heard details of Apple’s plans for virtual / augmented reality, the company was implementing a two-year internal deadline from a planned launch in 2020. Today, Bloomberg quotes “from people with knowledge of the subject” when reporting supposed new details for the standalone Apple VR headset, which Bloomberg says could launch in 2022 as a precursor to a more mainstream AR headset. From a technological design standpoint, the most notable detail in the report is that Apple’s latest virtual reality prototypes have “taken away the space that VR gadgets typically reserve for users who must wear glasses.” This could help avoid some of the bulk of the “ski goggles” typically associated with the “eye box” on most current helmets. For visually impaired users, the prototype apparently uses “personalized prescription lenses” in the helmet itself, according to anonymous Bloomberg sources.

Bloomberg also reports that the Apple headset prototype currently sports a fabric exterior to keep weight down (shades of Google’s late Daydream VR there) and a fan to help cool internal processors that would have “beaten CPU performance. Apple’s M1 Mac “. Some prototypes would also include built-in hand tracking and the ability to type on a virtual keyboard through a custom operating system.

These types of features, combined with “screens with a much higher resolution than those of existing VR products” will mean that the price of the Apple headset is “much more expensive than its competitors”, potentially including the $ 1,000 valve. This could position the headset as a niche, ultra high-end device similar to the Mac Pro desktop. But it could also pave the way for Apple’s larger mainstream push towards transparent AR glasses, which Bloomberg says could be unveiled by 2023.

There is another possibility, although the Bloomberg story does not pose it. It can be purely a development tool to prepare application developers to create content for the mainstream mainstream AR headset, just as a Mac mini equipped with A12Z has been provided to developers to allow them to prepare for the launch of Apple’s M1-based Macs. Last year. It would be surprising if Apple launched a primarily VR headset as a mainstream device when it hasn’t already come up with robust APIs and the like to create VR content rather than AR.

Either way, Apple’s decision to buy the sports and events-focused company NextVR last year suggests that the company’s VR and AR ambitions are more than a passing fantasy. History is littered with examples of Apple ideas that never made it out of the prototype phase. Until an official announcement is made, an Apple VR headset could still be a part of it.