The Apple AR glasses, Apple’s second entry to the mixed reality market, may have been delayed to 2025 or 2026 due to an apparent ‘design issue’.
The company is expected to launch its first mixed reality headset next year, but it’s also said to have a lightweight set of AR glasses in the works. If recent reports are to be believed, Apple doesn’t quite have the design for that more compact follow-up sewn up just yet.
Haitong International Tech Research analyst Jeff Pu now expects (via MarketWatch) Apple’s AR headset “to be postponed to 2025-2026, due to design issues”.
It might well be true that Apple is best placed to end the Meta Quest dominance, but it’s certainly struggling to launch its opening AR/VR salvo. Back in April Pu claimed that Apple’s debut AR headset had been put back to 2023 after initially being on course for a limited rollout in late 2022.
With its second mixed reality device, the Apple AR glasses, now also said to be in trouble, it does make you wonder whether this whole AR thing has serious legs.
Back around the time of that Apple AR delay rumour, it was estimated that Apple would sell between 1 million and 1.5 million units of its mixed reality device in its first year. That’s a pretty meagre amount compared to the 240 million iPhones thought to be sold in 2021.
This is an indicator of how much work needs to be done to convince the public of AR/VR’s utility and appeal, as well as to bring the price down to something vaguely palatable.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
