Apple hires Meta Platforms AR comms lead ahead of 2020 headset release

Apple has hired Meta’s augmented reality communications lead ahead of its 2022 mixed reality headset launch.

Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:

As I’ve covered extensively, next year is when we’re likely to see Apple’s first major new product category in seven years: a powerful and pricey mixed-reality headset.

Ahead of that launch, Apple is starting to get its ducks in a row.

I’m told the company has hired Andrea Schubert, Meta Platforms Inc.’s communications and public relations head for its augmented reality efforts. Meta, with Oculus, has been the market leader in headsets, so such a hire makes sense as Apple nears its launch.

MacDailyNews Take: Earlier this month, Apple uber-analyst Ming Chi Kuo moved his target launch date for Apple’s long-awaited VR and AR headset from Q2 to Q4 2022.

In February, The Information reported that the Apple headset would display video of the real world to people wearing it with a price point around $3,000 — making the product an enterprise-focused offering, not for the consumer market.

If priced at $3,000, we expect Apple’s headset will, in large part, exist as a means for developers to build the next killer AR apps for true, light, powerful Apple smartglasses for arrive as soon as 2025.

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