Apple has indefinitely postponed the launch of its lightweight augmented-reality glasses due to technical challenges, but is still planning to unveil its first mixed-reality headset this year, Bloomberg News reports.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
The company had originally hoped to release the AR glasses after the debut of its mixed-reality headset, which combines both AR and virtual reality, but that part of the plan is now on hold. Instead, Apple will follow up with a lower-cost version of the mixed-reality headset as soon as 2024 or early 2025, according to people familiar with the deliberations.
The initial mixed-reality device due this year will cost around $3,000. The hefty price stems from its use of advanced and high-resolution displays, more than 10 cameras, sensors to determine where a user is looking, and the use of both a Mac-grade M2 processor and a dedicated chip for handling AR and VR visuals.
The shifting plans underscore the challenges Apple faces in pushing into a new industry. The company is betting that AR and VR devices could be a major moneymaker, but the technical challenges of producing a consumer-friendly product has bedeviled much of the tech world. Apple’s initial dream of offering a lightweight pair of AR glasses that people could wear all day now appears many years away — if it happens at all.
The company is focusing on the lower-cost headset instead of the AR glasses, which were once planned to be released about a year after the initial headset, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the project is still under wraps. At one point, Apple aimed to release the glasses in 2023, before delaying the launch until around 2025. Now, Apple has postponed the rollout indefinitely and pared back its work on the AR device… Some people within Apple doubt that the company will ever ship AR glasses, but it remains a long-term goal.
MacDailyNews Take: So, Apple will ship $3,000 smart goggles for developers to use to create killer apps for AR glasses that are shelved indefinitely?
Seems like a losing “strategy.” AirPower!
Tim Cook’s Apple. Firing on all cylinders, as usual.
Maybe some more remote “work,” silly masks, lack of leadership, infantile coddling, and sanctimonious hypocrisy will do the trick?
Apple needs new, energetic, disciplined, focused leadership.
We call ’em like we see ’em. Sorry, not sorry. – MacDailyNews, January 6, 2023
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