While rumors about Apple’s Mixed Reality headset have cooled down over these past weeks due to the iPhone 14 launch and new products being announced, analysts are now turning their attention to Apple’s new Reality Pro device, set to be unveiled in 2023. Here’s what the latest analysis talks about.
According to a paywalled DigiTimes report (via MacRumors), Apple manufacturer Pegatron will start assembling the company’s Mixed Reality headset at the end of the first quarter of 2023, which could be around March.
At first, Pegatron will produce limited units, and the price of this Mixed Reality headset will be higher.
Industry sources stated this XR headset mainly targets the commercial markets. The price is higher and the shipment quantity is limited. Previous estimates said that the annual shipment for this device would reach 2.5 million units. However, right now, rough estimates placed the annual shipment at around 0.7 to 0.8 million units. For supply chain manufacturers that benefit from quantity, this is not a particularly profitable order.
Although the Mixed Reality headset won’t be profitable at launch, the report says manufacturers are willing to work with Apple to prove their technical capabilities and become “well positioned for future AR/VR products.”
If Apple’s goal works out, this Mixed Reality headset is just one of several headsets the company plans to introduce in the next few years, such as a cheaper version of this product, an Augmented Reality headset only, and a new generation of this upcoming product.
MacRumors also points out that this report not necessarily contradicts what analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said a few months ago that Apple would start mass production in January as the analyst says per-orders won’t begin until the second quarter of 2023, most likely around WWDC 2023 in June – which DigiTimes corroborate with.
As Apple won’t likely announce new products in 2022, it’s time to start looking to the next year and all the possibilities the company will bring.
