- The new models will launch in 2025, is expected to offer more consumer-friendly priced options
- First-gen model to launch at WWDC in June following multiple delays
- Initial price expected to be upwards of $3,000 aimed for professionals
- The headset will run Apple's new xrOS operating system
Apple plans to release two high-end and two low-end models of its AR/VR headset in 2025, following the launch of the company’s first headset in just a few months’ time, respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a Medium post last month.
“Apple’s second-generation AR/MR headset has two high-end and low-end models,” Kuo said, noting that Luxcaseict and Foxconn will be the suppliers for the new models. The second-generation models are destined to launch in 2025, according to Kuo, amid speculation the company’s first headset will launch this summer.
The company’s first headset, “Apple Reality Pro,” is expected to be announced at this year’s WWDC. The headset has been “imminently” rumored to launch for several months, with development and production issues reportedly being the cause of its delay.
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Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reported last month that Apple had originally planned to launch the headset in April, but that a delay had pushed it to June. Before its April launch goal, the company reportedly wanted to have its headset pushed out the door in June 2022, but “hardware and software issues still needed to be ironed out.”
On top of the hardware aspects of the headset, the company will also have to reveal “xrOS” — a brand new operating system and platform for its AR/VR products, joining iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Apple had originally wanted to preview the hardware aspects of the headset at an event this spring, possibly in March or early April, and then delve deeper into “xrOS” and its platform at WWDC in June, which is more developer-centric.
The headset is not expected to be entirely consumer-friendly, with a price tag of upwards of $3,000 and a niche set of technologies that, at least at launch, will be better suited to professionals rather than day-to-day Apple consumers. The headset would be the first major Apple product since the introduction of the Apple Watch in 2015. It would also represent the Cupertino tech giant’s first hardware endeavor into the increasingly competitive AR/VR space.
