Apple is highly rumored to unveil its long-awaited mixed reality headset in just a couple of months, but this reveal appears to have arrived at a time when demand for high-end virtual reality is very low.
According to a new blog post from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, some of the biggest recent bets are in virtual reality. have largely failed. Kuo reports that:
Sony has cut its 2023 production plan for the PS VR2 by about 20%.
The product lifecycle shipment for Meta Quest Pro is only about 300,000 units.
Shipments of Pico (China’s largest AR/VR headset brand) in 2022 were 40 percent lower than expected.
There have already been some signs that high-end virtual reality isn’t taking hold, especially Meta’s decision to cut the price of the Quest Pro from $1,500 to $1,000 just four months after the product first launched. But given that Apple’s headset could cost around $3,000 — double the starting price of the Quest Pro — the iPhone maker could have a very steep road ahead as it tries to get traction for its headphones.
Obviously, Apple’s headset would be a beast of a device, which may be part of the reason for its exorbitant cost. It will reportedly have advanced hand tracking, won’t require a controller, and can apparently recreate another person’s entire body in VR in face-to-face FaceTime calls. But it will also apparently rely on an external battery pack for power, which, to me, seems like it won’t quite follow Apple’s usual streamlined aesthetic. The higher price may also be an indication that Apple is targeting developers to get started, not the mass market, so it may be looking for a different group of buyers than hardware like the PSVR 2.
It is also not entirely clear Why We need an Apple headset now. In a recent interview, CEO Tim Cook argued that augmented reality can enhance “connectivity” and “connectivity”, and that the headset itself It seems to focus on “shared sharing”. But these are very similar to the arguments Meta made for the unpopular Quest Pro.
And those low Quest Pro sales occurred even after that years To invest from Meta to build an ecosystem. While we don’t yet know if Apple has an easy way for developers to bring apps on other Apple platforms to the headphones, I suspect there will only be a few headphone-specific apps available to get started.
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