Apple officially announced its new Vision Pro platform at WWDC this month, with a release date of “early 2024.” Now, reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is out with a new report detailing Apple’s plans to better integrate the iPhone with the Vision Pro ecosystem, starting with the iPhone 15 later this year.
iPhone 15 with improved UWB features
In a new post on Twitter, Kuo details that Apple will “aggressively upgrade hardware specifications” of the iPhone as part of its effort to build a competitive ecosystem surrounding Vision Pro. “The ecosystem is one of the key success factors for Vision Pro, including the integration with other Apple hardware products, and related main hardware specifications are Wi-Fi and UWB,” Kuo explains.
The first step in this process will reportedly be upgrading the Ultra Wideband chip inside the iPhone 15. According to Kuo, the iPhone 15 will likely use a new version of the Ultra Wideband chip, which Apple currently brands as the U1 chip, to be more efficient and more reliable.
“iPhone 15 will likely see a specification upgrade of UWB, with the production process moving from 16nm to more advanced 7nm, allowing for improved performance or reduced power consumption for nearby Interactions,” Kuo says.
Apple’s U1 chip first debuted in the iPhone 11, and it has been included in each iPhone model since then. The U1 chip is also present in Apple’s AirTag item tracker, the Apple Watch Series 6 and newer, the HomePod mini, the second-generation full-size HomePod, and the latest-generation AirPods Pro charging case.
Apple uses the U1 chip for a number of different things, including Find My features, Handoff, Precision Finding, AirDrop, and more. Kuo believes that an upgraded version of the U1 chip will improve the performance of these features and also play a key role in the integration between Vision Pro and Apple’s other products.
iPhone 16 with Wi-Fi 7
Looking further into the future, Kuo says that the iPhone 16 is slated to be Apple’s first iPhone with support for the Wi-Fi 7 technology. “iPhone 16 will likely upgrade to Wi-Fi 7, which will be more conducive to Apple’s integration of hardware products running on the same local network and provide a better ecosystem experience,” the analyst explains.
Wi-Fi 7 is the next-generation standard for Wi-Fi technology and promises a big boost in transfer speeds and data throughput. In fact, the Wi-Fi Alliance has specifically pointed to the benefits that Wi-Fi 7 will offer for virtual and augmented reality technology.
Even more exciting is the next generation of AR and VR content users have in store. WiFi 7 unleashes a world of possibilities to explore new virtual worlds with fully interactive content. With ultra-high speeds and imperceptible levels of latency, users can immerse themselves in these worlds with lifelike responsiveness and new sensory technologies that elevate the experience beyond our wildest imaginations.
Apple hasn’t yet offered specific details about what kind of hardware is inside the Vision Pro headset. Nonetheless, it’s clear that Vision Pro will use some of this next-generation technology – and Apple hopes it will deeply integrate with the iPhone and other devices into the future.
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