CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple appears to be preparing to unveil a long-rumored headset that will put its users between the real and virtual worlds, while also testing the ability of tech pioneers to promote new devices after others have failed to capture the public eye. imagination.
After years of speculation, the stage is set for the widely anticipated announcement Monday at Apple’s annual developer conference on a park-like campus in Cupertino, California, which the company’s late founder Steve Jobs helped design.
Apple kicked off the event by announcing that the latest models of its two advanced computer lines, the Mac Studio and Mac Pro, will be powered by a chip designed by the company that was already available in less expensive Macs.
The Mac Studio will retail for $2,000 and the Mac Pro will be priced at $7,000. As is usually the case at this conference, Apple gave a sneak peek at its next iPhone operating system, iOS 17. This software, which will include more customization tools and location sharing for phone calls and text messages, is expected to be released as a free update in September.
But the star of the show is expected to be a pair of glasses — possibly called “Reality Pro,” according to media leaks — that could become another milestone in Apple’s tradition of launching game-changing technology, though the company didn’t always have it. The first to try to make a specific device.
“This will be a historic day,” Apple CEO Tim Cook promised shortly after walking to the theater Monday outside the company’s spaceship-like offices. He then told the crowd to expect to see some new products, without giving any details. Apple usually waits until the end of its events to come up with a product that takes the company in a new direction.
Apple’s accomplishments date back to Jobs’ connected debut of 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 $3,000 price tag, Apple’s new headset may also be greeted with a lukewarm reception from all but the richest tech enthusiasts.
If the new device turns out to be a niche product, it would leave Apple on the same hook as other big tech companies and startups that have tried to sell headphones or glasses with technology that propels people into artificial worlds or displays digital landscape images of the objects in front of them physically — a format known as Augmented Reality.
Apple’s glasses are expected to be elegantly designed and able to switch between fully virtual or augmented options, a combination sometimes known as “mixed reality.” This flexibility is also sometimes called External Reality, or XR for short.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been calling these alternate 3D realities “metaverse”. It’s a whimsical 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 virtual technology.
But the metaverse is still very much a digital ghost townMeta’s virtual reality headset, Quest, remains the best-selling device in a category that has so far mostly appealed to video game players looking for more immersive experiences.
Response to VR, AR, and Mixed Reality has been decidedly modest so far. Even some of the tools that popularize the technology have been derided sarcastically, the most notable example being Google’s internet-connected glasses released over a decade ago.
After Google co-founder Sergey Brin initially raved about the device by showing off the early model’s “wow factor” With a skydiving stunt staged during a technology conference in San FranciscoConsumers quickly turned to a product that allowed its users to surreptitiously take photos and videos. The backlash became so severe that people who wore the equipment became known as “Glassholes,” prompting Google to pull the product just a few years after its debut.
Microsoft has also had limited success with HoloLens, a mixed reality headset released in 2016, although it is the software maker Earlier this year she insisted she was still committed to the technology.
Magic Leap, a startup sparked excitement with previews of the mixed reality technology it could conjure The sight of a whale breaching the gymnasium floorhad so much trouble marketing its first consumer headset in 2018 that it has since shifted its focus to industrial, healthcare and emergency uses.
There are four main questions that Apple’s eyewear must answer, said Daniel Diez, chief transformation officer at Magic Leap: “What can people do with it? What does this thing look and feel like? Is it comfortable to wear? And how much does it cost?”
The expectation that Apple’s protective glasses will sell for several thousand dollars has already dampened expectations for the product. Although he expects Apple’s glasses to boast “jaw-dropping” 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 point in the company’s portfolio. By comparison, Apple sells more than 200 million of its premium iPhones annually. But the iPhone wasn’t an instant sensation, selling fewer than 12 million units in its first full year on the market.
Since 2016, annual shipments of virtual and augmented reality devices have averaged 8.6 million units, according to research firm CCS Insight. The company expects Sales will remain sluggish this year. With expected sales of about 11 million devices before gradually increasing to 67 million in 2026.
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