At WWDC 2023, on June 5th, Apple is expected to unveil what is perhaps the most experimental, unconventional product in its history: a mixed-reality (AR/VR) headset that resembles a pair of ski goggles and comes with an external, tethered battery pack.
Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie for The Wall Street Journal:
Apple’s launch plans break many of its traditions and rules about new products that have become the industry gold standard. Unlike other Apple products, the device is debuting in a still-experimental mode. Apple predicts slower adoption for the headset compared with the Apple Watch or the iPhone, both of which quickly became consumer must-haves. Taking seven years in development before hitting the market, it will be one of the most complex consumer products any company has ever sold.
The Apple headset will combine both augmented and virtual reality into a single device—a term the industry calls mixed reality. Users wearing the headset, for instance game players, will be able to experience their virtual worlds through the screen in the goggles, but also be able to simultaneously see the physical world around them thanks to outward facing cameras, said people familiar with the project.
Company engineers and executives have spent months preparing presentations with a demo version of the device for Apple’s upcoming annual software conference in June. But it isn’t expected to be delivered for most users until the fall at the earliest, people familiar with the supply chain said…
Many in the industry think that the market for this technology still has a long way to go before it reaches its full potential: a regular-looking pair of glasses that could fully immerse someone in a digital world. The necessary technologies to bring such a product to fruition—including computing hardware that is small and energy-efficient enough to fit into eyeglasses—are still likely around a decade away, according to industry officials.
MacDailyNews Take: It’ll be interesting, to say the least!
Apple’s smartgoggles will be cool, but it’s the subsequent Apple smartglasses that will change the world. – MacDailyNews, July 11, 2022
Someday, hopefully sooner than later, we’ll look back at holding up slabs of metal and glass to access AR as unbelievably quaint. — MacDailyNews, July 28, 2017
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Honestly, I can’t wait to see what seven years of R&D — both hardware and software — will produce. Even if it’s a niche product, like the HomePod, kudos to Apple for taking a big swing.
Honestly, $3,000 for fake reality glasses? I could not care less…
Don’t buy it, know one cares what you do.
So if this leads to glasses that look like regular “spectacles” but the prescription changes on the fly due to coordinated cameras looking back at the retina (think: a constant refraction exam that changes the ‘script on the fly) that will be quite the convenience and will put a lot of glasses stores out of business. Of course I could die before they get to that point… and I have been waiting forever for something on the Apple Watch that measures glucose in real time for no additional cost. Say good bye to planned obsolescence.