Apple has toyed with a number of different names for the Reality Pro OS – the operating system run by its upcoming AR/VR headset. The most likely bet appears to be xrOS, but there are other possibilities.
Indeed, Apple has now trademarked at least five different names …
What will the Reality Pro OS be called?
Bloomberg reported late last year that the company had settled on the xrOS name for the headset equivalent of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
“Internally, the company recently changed the name of the operating system to ‘xrOS’ from realityOS,’ said the people, who asked not to be identified because the project is still under wraps,” Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg.
Apple indeed used a shell company to register xrOS as a trademark, back in January. But that’s not the only name the company has trademarked.
Apple has trademarked at least five names
As T3 notes, xrOS is just one of five names trademarked by Apple:
- xrOS
- realityOS
- realOS
- realityproOS
- xrProOS
We say “at least” five, because Apple’s use of shell companies means that there may well be additional trademarks out there which haven’t been spotted.
The latter two aren’t utterly impossible: if the Reality Pro headset gets a different version of the operating system than later, cheaper, models – the equivalent of iPadOS and iOS – then perhaps the Pro model needs the word in the name.
But my view is that both realityproOS and xrProOS are way too much of a mouthful (what next, realitypromaxOS?). So if we can eliminate those, which of the remaining names is most likely?
xrOS is the leading contender
xrOS presumably stands for eXtended Reality, one of the names given to a mix of augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR). Some companies have branded this mix as Mixed Reality, while others refer to it as Extended Reality.
The earliest reports pointed to realityOS, and Bloomberg confirms that was the original choice – but seems very confident xrOS has replaced it.
There’s now good supporting evidence for this: While Apple has trademarked at least five different names, xrOS has also been registered as a wordmark.
A wordmark (unlike a simple trademark) has its marketing stylization. In this case, the wordmark “xrOS” found in the New Zealand registries uses the San Francisco typeface created by Apple. It aligns with the logo of Apple’s other operating systems, such as iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS.
So xrOS is certainly where the smart money is going.
Read more:
- xrOS for Apple’s Reality Pro headset: Apps, features, and more
- Reality Pro launch and pricing: Making sense of the speculation
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