Global Courant
Apple appears poised to unveil a long-rumoured headset that will place its users between the virtual and real worlds, while also testing the technology trendsetter’s ability to popularize newfangled devices after others fail to make it. capture the imagination of the public.
After years of speculation, the way is clear for the highly anticipated announcement to be made Monday at Apple’s annual developer conference at a Cupertino, California, theater named after the company’s late co-founder Steve Jobs. Apple will also likely use the event to show off its latest Mac computer, preview the next operating system for the iPhone, and discuss its artificial intelligence strategy.
But the star of the show is expected to be a pair of glasses — perhaps dubbed “Reality Pro,” according to media leaks — that could become another milestone in Apple’s lore of releasing groundbreaking technology, even though the company’s not always the first to try to make a particular device.
Apple’s line of breakthroughs goes back to Bow-tie Jobs selling 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 price tag that could be in the $3,000 range, Apple’s new headset may also be greeted with a lukewarm reception from all but affluent technophiles.
If the new device turns out to be a niche product, it would put Apple in the same position as other big tech companies and start-ups that have tried to sell headsets or glasses equipped with technology that pushes people into artificial worlds or projects digital images with landscapes and things that are actually in front of them — a format known as augmented reality.
Apple’s glasses are expected to be sleekly designed and capable of switching between fully virtual or augmented options, a mix known as “mixed reality.” That flexibility is sometimes referred to as external reality, or XR for short.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg describes these alternate three-dimensional realities as the “metaverse.” It’s a geeky 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 the virtual technology.
But the metaverse remains largely a digital ghost town, though Meta’s virtual reality headset, the Quest, remains the top-selling device in a category that has so far mainly appealed to video game players looking for even more immersive experiences.
Apple executives seem likely to avoid referring to the metaverse, given the skepticism that has quickly grown around that term, when discussing the potential of the company’s new headset.
In recent years, Apple CEO Tim Cook has periodically touted augmented reality as the technology’s next quantum leap, without setting a specific timeline for when it will gain mass appeal.
“If you look back at a certain moment, you know, zoom out into the future and look back, you’ll wonder how you lived your life without augmented reality,” Cook, who is 62, said in a conversation with an audience last September. of students in Italy. “Just like today, you wonder how people like me grew up without the internet. You know, so I think it can be so profound. And it’s not going to be profound overnight.”
The response to virtual, augmented and mixed reality so far has been decidedly ho-hum. In fact, some of the gadgets that deploy the technology have been derisively mocked, the most notable example being Google’s internet-connected glasses released more than a decade ago.
After Google co-founder Sergey Brin initially generated excitement about the device by demonstrating the potential “wow factor” of an early model with a skydiving stunt at a tech conference in San Francisco, consumers quickly turned averse of a product that allows users to stealthily take photos and video. The backlash became so intense that people wearing the gear became known as “Glassholes,” leading Google to withdraw the product a few years after its debut.
Microsoft has also had limited success with HoloLens, a mixed reality headset released in 2016, though the software maker insisted earlier this year that it remains committed to the technology.
Magic Leap, a start-up that sparked excitement with previews of a mixed-reality technology that could evoke the spectacle of a whale breaching a gymnasium floor, struggled to launch its first headset in 2018. convey to consumers that it has since shifted its focus to industrial applications, healthcare and emergencies.
Daniel Diez, Magic Leap’s chief transformation officer, said there are four key questions Apple’s glasses need to answer: “What can people do with them? What does this thing look and feel like? Is it comfortable to wear? And how much is it going to cost?”
The expectation that Apple’s glasses will sell for several thousand dollars has already dampened expectations for the product. While he expects Apple’s glasses to show off “stunning” 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 speck in the company’s portfolio. By comparison, Apple sells more than 200 million iPhones annually, its most important product. But the iPhone wasn’t an instant sensation, selling less than 12 million units in its first full year on the market.
In an attempt to raise the expected price of Apple’s glasses, Zuckerberg made a point last week to say the next Quest headset will retail for $500, an announcement four months before Meta Platform plans to release the latest device. to present its technical conference. .
According to research firm CCS Insight, an average of 8.6 million units of virtual and augmented reality devices have been shipped annually since 2016. The company expects sales to remain sluggish this year, with sales forecast at around 11 million of the devices before gradually rising to 67 million by 2026.
But those predictions are made clear before it is known whether Apple will release a product that changes the landscape.
“I would never leave Apple out, especially with the consumer market and especially when it comes to finding those great applications and solutions,” said Diez of Magic Leap. “If anyone is going to crack the consumer market early, I wouldn’t be surprised it would be Apple.”
