Apple focusing on mixed-reality headset, high-end shelved for now

AppleInsider

Apple has allegedly shelved its idea for lightweight and higher end augmented reality glasses, and is instead choosing to focus on the yet unannounced mixed-reality headset for the mass-market.

Apple's AR glasses often referred to as "Apple Glass," were supposedly going to be similar to Google Glass. The glasses would have overlaid digital information while not obstructing the user's view of the real world.

Apple Glass was anticipated to release in 2025, after the launch of Apple's yet-unnamed mixed-reality headset.

However, according to a report from Bloomberg, Apple has postponed the glasses citing technical difficulties. The company has allegedly scaled back work on the device, with some employees suggesting that the device may never be released.

While Apple Glass may not see the light of day, Apple is allegedly gearing up to release its mixed-reality headset in late 2023.

Read on AppleInsider

Anilu_777

😭 as a prescription glasses wearer I was intrigued by the Apple Glass idea. I’m disappointed if its reported shelving is true. 

ihatescreennames

Agreed. I’d rather wear glasses than goggles and I’m more interested in AR than VR. 

bsimpsen

I also have zero interest in goggled VR and considerable interest in eyeglassed AR.

bestkeptsecret

Apple Glasses which can be power-corrected based on your prescription, with AR and a choice of frames? That would have been amazing.

Maybe the tech isn't there yet.

9secondkox2

Doubt the glasses are shelved. Delayed is more likely. A headset/digital scuba isn’t the answer. 

No one wants that outside of some very niche situations and even then, no one wants that all the time. 

Apple makes products that fit in with and enhance everyday life. They don’t make products just for folks  to nerd out and become a space to the product. 

Glasses make sense. Headset does not. 

michelb76

Smart move. It would only generate bad press. Getting a headset out might also mean we could actually start to get VR/AR software and development tools for the mac.

bernleckie

“Mass market”? Sorry, what’s a mass market for a specialised gadget that impresses technophiles but isn’t solving a universal problem? VR is niche, AR could break out of that niche, but it has to offer things people need, and in a way that many people will want. 

iPod: the whole world wants portable music. Gadgets have come along which digitise it, but they’re clunky and difficult. iPod is small, attractive and does it all better - win!

iPhone: the whole world wants to be connected. Pockets and bags full of gadgets offered different ways to stay connected on the move, but they’re clunky and difficult. iPhone is small, attractive and does it all better - win!

Apply this to Apple Glasses or whatever they’ll call it. (I’d suggest Vision or Sight, by the way - it’s more universal.) The whole world wants to see and understand what’s going on around them. Gadgets offer various clunky ways of doing this. Apple Sight has to be small, attractive and do it all better. That’s where the real mass market is for the win. 

No-one would expect that to be cheap. What value do you place on sight? It’ll just have to be affordable over time and be seen as good value because of what its services bring to your life. If a phone can be sold for over $1,000 + service fees, I’d bet that vision can be sold for more if it can deliver well on a universal need. 

I don’t know if it’s technically possible yet. I’m sure it will be later. Meanwhile, a clunky step on the way is probably best kept as a dev kit, else it’s more likely the next Newton or HomePod than iPhone or iPod. 

Marvin

9secondkox2 said:

Doubt the glasses are shelved. Delayed is more likely.

Gurman and others do this frequently. They cover every possible option and when they get wrong info, they say the product is cancelled or delayed.

Apple would never bring 3 devices to market separately for AR, MR and VR and certainly not at $3k.

Only MR is viable for a mass market product and it has to hit a mainstream entry price point between $500-1000.

iPhone 14 has all the capability needed for AR and VR and can be strapped to people's heads for $799:



A head wearable only needs different displays and sensors and a comfortable place to put the battery. It can use electronically controlled dimming on the outer display to move between VR and AR.

Main use case is movies, personal cinema everywhere you go and in 3D. Followed by gaming where you get console experience from mobile, especially using a 3rd party device like Switch or Steam Deck.

All Apple has to do is make a nice form factor for an iPhone class device. I don't think it makes sense to bring a product to market on anything other than 3nm since it's already in production.

fastasleep

This article is... uh. They're two different products. The report actually states that they're first releasing the high end (ie expensive) MR headset, then focusing on the next lower-cost version of the MR headset which would be the mass-market targeted version. The AR glasses are a different class of device and is being postponed, presumably due to technical and cost barriers, in order to focus on advancing the MR headset platform first. 

Kinda like when their tablet project was initially shelved, the iPhone came out, then they revisited the project and we saw the iPad three years later.

fastasleep

Marvin said:

iPhone 14 has all the capability needed for AR and VR and can be strapped to people's heads for $799:



A head wearable only needs different displays and sensors and a comfortable place to put the battery. It can use electronically controlled dimming on the outer display to move between VR and AR.

Main use case is movies, personal cinema everywhere you go and in 3D. Followed by gaming where you get console experience from mobile, especially using a 3rd party device like Switch or Steam Deck.

All Apple has to do is make a nice form factor for an iPhone class device. I don't think it makes sense to bring a product to market on anything other than 3nm since it's already in production.

They're not going to make a Cardboard device lol. You're not factoring in a number of things into your $799 headset — outward-facing sensors (cameras/LIDAR) for room/object/hand tracking, inward-facing sensors for face and gaze-tracking, completely different display and optics technologies... etc. It's not a Cardboard.

Main use case for Apple's headset is most definitely not going to be 3D movies, and not sure how Switch or Steam Deck would have anything to do with this?