Apple is expected to unveil sleek headset aimed at thrusting the masses into alternate realities

Article content

It appears that Apple is preparing to unveil a long-rumored headset that will place its users between the virtual and real worlds, while also testing the ability of tech pioneers to promote new devices after others have failed to capture the public’s attention.

After years of speculation, the stage is set for the widely anticipated announcement Monday at Apple’s annual developer conference in Cupertino, California, the stage named after the company’s late founder Steve Jobs. Apple is also likely to use the event to showcase its latest Mac computers, preview the next operating system for the iPhone and discuss its AI strategy.

Article content

Article content

But the star of the show is expected to be a pair of glasses — possibly called “Reality Pro,” according to media leaks — that could become another milestone in Apple’s tradition of launching game-changing technology, though the company didn’t always have it. The first to try to make a specific device.

Apple’s breakthrough dates back to Jobs’ breakthrough promoting the first Mac in 1984 – a tradition that continued with the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, the iPad in 2010, the Apple Watch in 2014, and the AirPods in 2016.

But with a hefty $3,000 price tag, Apple’s new headset may also be greeted with a lukewarm reception from all but the richest tech enthusiasts.

If the new device turns out to be a niche product, it would leave Apple on the same hook as other big tech companies and startups that have tried to sell headphones or glasses with technology that propels people into artificial worlds or displays digital landscape images of the objects in front of them physically — a format known as Augmented Reality.

Article content

Apple’s glasses are expected to be elegantly designed and able to switch between fully virtual or augmented options, a combination sometimes known as “mixed reality.” This flexibility is also sometimes called External Reality, or XR for short.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been calling these alternate 3D realities “metaverse”. It’s a whimsical concept that he tried to push into the mainstream by renaming his social networking company to Meta Platforms in 2021 and then pouring billions of dollars into improving virtual technology.

But the metaverse is still very much a digital ghost town, though the Meta virtual reality headset, the Quest, remains the best-selling device in a category that has so far mostly attracted video game players looking for more immersive experiences.

Article content

Article content

Apple executives seem to avoid referring to the metaverse, given the skepticism that quickly developed around the term, when they discuss the capabilities of the company’s new headphone.

In recent years, Apple CEO Tim Cook has been periodically touting augmented reality as the technology’s next quantum leap, with no specific timetable for when it will gain mass appeal.

Cook, 62, said last September while speaking to an audience of students in Italy. “Just like today, you wonder how people like me grew up without the Internet. You know, I think it can be that deep. And it won’t be that deep overnight.”

Article content

Response to VR, AR, and Mixed Reality has been decidedly modest so far. Even some of the tools that popularize the technology have been derided sarcastically, the most notable example being Google’s internet-connected glasses released over a decade ago.

After Google co-founder Sergey Brin initially teased the device by demonstrating the potential “wow factor” of an early model with a skydiving game staged during a technology conference in San Francisco, consumers quickly turned to a product that allowed its users to go incognito. . Take photos and videos. The backlash became so severe that people who wore the equipment became known as “Glassholes,” prompting Google to pull the product just a few years after its debut.

Article content

Microsoft also had limited success with HoloLens, a mixed-reality headset released in 2016, though the software maker earlier this year insisted it remained committed to the technology.

Magic Leap, a startup that sparked excitement with previews of mixed-reality technology that can conjure up the sight of a whale breaching a gymnasium floor, had so much trouble marketing its first headset to consumers in 2018 that it has since shifted its focus to industrial and care uses. Health and emergency.

There are four main questions that Apple’s eyewear must answer, said Daniel Diez, chief transformation officer at Magic Leap: “What can people do with it? What does this thing look and feel like? Is it comfortable to wear? And how much does it cost?”

Article content

The expectation that Apple’s protective glasses will sell for several thousand dollars has already dampened expectations for the product. Although he expects Apple’s glasses to boast “jaw-dropping” technology, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said he expects the company to sell just 150,000 units during the device’s first year on the market — just a point in the company’s portfolio. By comparison, Apple sells more than 200 million iPhones, its flagship product annually. But the iPhone wasn’t an instant sensation, selling fewer than 12 million units in its first full year on the market.

In a move apparently intended to inflate the expected price of Apple’s glasses, Zuckerberg made a point last week that the next Quest headset would sell for $500, an announcement made four months before Meta Platform plans to showcase the latest device at its tech conference. .

Article content

Since 2016, annual shipments of virtual and augmented reality devices have averaged 8.6 million units, according to research firm CCS Insight. The company expects sales to remain sluggish this year, with sales expected to be around 11 million devices before gradually rising to 67 million in 2026.

But these predictions were clearly made before it was known whether Apple might launch a landscape-changing product.

“I would never count on Apple, especially with the consumer market and especially when it comes to finding those killer apps and solutions,” said Magic Leap’s Diez. “If someone is going to start penetrating the consumer market early, I wouldn’t be surprised that it would be Apple.”