Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Apple

Apple's First Headset To Be Niche Precursor To Eventual AR Glasses (bloomberg.com) 18

Posted by msmash from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.
Apple's first crack at a headset is designed to be a pricey, niche precursor to a more ambitious augmented reality product that will take longer to develop, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. From the report: The initial device has confronted several development hurdles and the company has conservative sales expectations, illustrating how challenging it will be to bring this nascent consumer technology to the masses. As a mostly virtual reality device, it will display an all-encompassing 3-D digital environment for gaming, watching video and communicating. AR functionality, the ability to overlay images and information over a view of the real world, will be more limited. Apple has planned to launch the product as soon as 2022, going up against Facebook's Oculus, Sony's PlayStation VR and headsets from HTC, the people said. They asked not to be identified discussing private plans.

Apple's typical playbook involves taking emerging consumer technology, such as music players, smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, and making it reliable and easy to use for everyone. This time, though, Apple isn't looking to create an iPhone-like hit for its first headset. Instead, the company is building a high-end, niche product that will prepare outside developers and consumers for its eventual, more mainstream AR glasses. The plans suggest that Apple's first headset will be far more expensive than those from rivals, which cost about $300 to $900. Some Apple insiders believe the company may sell only one headset per day per retail store. Apple has roughly 500 stores, so in that scenario, annual sales would be just over 180,000 units -- excluding other sales channels. That would put it on par with other pricey Apple products, such as the $5,999 Mac Pro desktop computer.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Apple's First Headset To Be Niche Precursor To Eventual AR Glasses More

Apple's First Headset To Be Niche Precursor To Eventual AR Glasses

Comments Filter:

  • People like to think of Apple as the company that brings them the new thing.

    Apple has never brought the new thing. They have always brought a better thing. That has always been good enough, maybe better since they get a chance to see what people will pay for.

    This isn't even a better thing, it's just more of the same old shit.

    What we really want is AR glasses that can also be good VR glasses, which means they have anywhere from 0%-"100%" transparency (or as close as you can optically get.) And they need ultr

    • I want something that can replace my normal eyeglasses with combination of vision correction and AR. Think Geordi from Star Trek TNG.

    • I don't think this is even Apple doing some sort of market research to see what people will pay, they're looking for early adopters to shake down this new tech and give them an idea of what works and what doesn't. Apple can make expensive headphones on their first try with basically no problems because lots of people have done that before, and there's an idea of what counts as 'good'. But with AR/VR stuff, the whole thing is pretty new, with mediocre software support and lots of technical challenges.

      This is

      • This whole thing seems oddly non-Apple of them. Apple loves to take a proven, if clunky, technology and streamline it, simplify it, and make it appealing to the masses. Them jumping into a non-proven, so-so technology and attempting to beta test, or proof of concept through sales is just. . . well, it's not what I'm used to seeing when it comes to Apple. In fact, it seems much more like Microsoft than Apple.

        I'm not even saying this is a good or a bad thing, just that it's different. Maybe it'll lead to

      • "This isn't just a case of 'don't buy the first revision', don't buy any revision unless you want to pay for the privilege of helping Apple develop this tech...

        When it's consumer ready, you'll know it."

        Totally agreed. I work in this area, VR and neuroscience, so I was chomping at the bit to get the iPhone 12 for the LIDAR (it can do in 5 minutes what took 24 hours with photogrammetry 6 months ago), and when they release this I will be first in the queue again, because whatever Apple bring to the market will

        • I think the biggest thing Apple will do is to normalize A/R and make it cool. Google Glass was nifty and had potential. But it was very much a public beta. And while I didn't personally think it looked too bad (The deal-killer for me was the Android tether. Sorry, but I wasn't about to give up my iPhone to try Glass out.), it was obvious tech and somewhat dorky-looking and a magnet for all of the nerd-haters. Apple's offering will likely be built into designer frames and much less obviously a geek toy.

    • Eventually it should be a contact lens, so that it can do this even as my eye moves, though it's okay for the first gen to require head movement

      No, people are not going to go through the months it takes to acclimate to contact lenses, and then put them in and take them out every time they fire up their AR app to do something like see which stores are in the mall they see across the street. Not even Microsoft would impose such an interface on users.

  • Seriously, neural jack or keyboard.

    AR and VR remain the same as 3D . . . it's solution looking for a problem.

    You could get much more use out of holographic HUDs and hardware-less gesture input (as accompanying tech to replace secondary monitors and assist conventional input) -- I get it, that's not super easy to do, but it is something that would get decent uptake quickly.

  • Is the stand sold separately and if so, how much does the piece of aluminum cost?

    • The stand is not sold to the public. If you'd like one, you have to make an appointment with a Genius so that you can give them your bank credentials. They'll withdraw your available funds as a deposit and put the remainder of the charges on your Apple Credit Card.
  • .... is that you have half of the people who see you all freaked out at the notion that you are "recording" them without their consent, and threaten to physically assault you if you don't take them off immediately.

Slashdot Top Deals

"May your future be limited only by your dreams." -- Christa McAuliffe

Close