After numerous delays, the Apple’s Reality Pro headset is reportedly set for an official unveil at WWDC in June, alongside new software platforms and developer tools. In a new investor note today, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple’s announcement “is the last hope” for the AR/VR headset market.
Will Apple’s Reality Pro headset be a ‘star product’?
In his report, Kuo outlines that both Sony and Meta have faced significant struggles in gaining widespread adoption with their respective AR and VR headset products. “The product lifecycle shipment for Meta’s Quest Pro is only around 300,000 units,” Kuo says.
Sony, meanwhile, has reportedly slashed its 2023 production plan for the PlayStation VR2 headset by about 20%. Finally, China’s largest AR/VR headset brand, Pico, saw its shipments for 2022 come in 40% lower than initially expected.
With these data points in mind, Kuo predicts that the future of the AR/VR headset market rests solely in the hands of Apple’s Reality Pro headset.
“There is currently insufficient evidence to suggest that AR/VR headsets can become the next star product in consumer electronics in the foreseeable future,” Kuo explains. “Apple’s announcement event is likely the last hope for convincing investors that the AR/MR headset device could have a chance to be the next star product in consumer electronics.”
Top comment by Tech_Enthusiast
The problem with existing implementations of VR (and, to a lesser extent, AR) is that they're still solutions in search of a problem. Every single revolutionary tech product has become popular because it solved an existing problem that the general public 1) identified and 2) was willing to pay to solve.
The computer revolutionized work and automated manual tasks. The television allowed us to see things around the world for the first time. The smartphone combined a phone, music player, the internet, email, portable camera, etc. into a single device. Game consoles brought the arcade into the house on an existing TV set. Based on all of the marketing from current VR companies, VR is going to...let us take meetings from home on a screen on our head? Let us walk around poorly rendered landscapes? Pretend to watch a movie in a fake movie theater from home?
Nothing we've seen from VR so far has proven to the general public that it's something worth spending money on. I really hope Apple has something great up it's sleeve that will show what problems VR is solving.
According to the analyst, the market might currently be overestimating the impact that AR and VR headset devices will have on “key component suppliers over the next few years, particularly in the optical-related.”
Apple’s first Reality Pro headset is expected to be an ultra-premium product priced at around $3,000. It will feature top-of-the-line specifications, including an “innovative three-display configuration” with two 4K Micro-LED panels. Apple is also currently working on a more affordable headset product, but it’s not expected to be ready for mass production until at least 2025.
Despite the impressive specifications, there is a lot of doubt surrounding Apple’s headset product. Even internally at Apple, there has reportedly been strife as to whether Apple should ship this version of the product. Apple CEO Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams have reportedly pushed for releasing this device, even though it’s not as well-rounded as designers and engineers would like it to be.
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