Rumors have swirled for months, and a clearer picture of what Apple VR is has now begun to form ahead of a formal unveiling. The headset is said to have been in development as long as seven years — twice the length of the original iPhone's development, and is being seen as a legacy-defining launch for CEO Tim Cook. So what can we expect from this brand-new foray into the mixed reality world?
If you didn't already know (where have you been?) virtual reality uses computer-generated images to create simulations of 3D environments and images that you can interact with, often through a headset. Built in sensors and additional periperhals let you move freely through these 3D spaces, creating immersive digitised worlds for you to explore. Currently, big players on the market include HTC with its Vive line, Sony's Playstation-compatible PSVR and PSVR 2, and the artist formerly known as Facebook's Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro.
Augmented reality, said to be a secondary feature of the Apple VR headset, is a similar but different concept. It uses computer-generated images super-imposed over the real world to create dynamic experiences that combine virtual reality and the real world, wether through a smartphone display or, as in this case, through a headmounted screen in front of your eyes. A good example of this is the popular Pokemon Go mobile game.
The rumored Apple Reality Pro headset will offer a combination of mixed and virtual reality experiences in a premium device, in typically Apple fashion, including a typically Apple price tag.
Apple's headset is reportedly a mixed-reality headset. That means it will offer full virtual reality experiences (think Meta Quest, Beatsaber, etc.). However, it is also expected to feature an augmented reality offering that can overlay virtual assets on top of your real-world surroundings (think Minecraft Earth, Pokémon Go).
Apple CEO, Tim Cook, teased in an interview with China Daily USA that Apple is "incredibly excited about AR". Cook also said that he thinks we are still in "the very early innings of how this technology will evolve" but that he couldn't be more excited about the opportunities in space. While we know Apple is working on an AR-focused device as well, it's possible that Cook could be hinting at the Apple VR headset and its dual AR capabilities.
In early 2023, a report from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg indicated that the headset will support both virtual and augmented reality. Gurman said that the headset, like the Apple Watch and AirPods Max, will feature a Digital Crown which "lets users switch between VR and AR. When in VR, the wearer is fully immersed. When AR is enabled, the content fades back and becomes surrounded by the user’s real environment."
According to the latest reports, Apple VR's headset is set to be released in the second half of 2023. The project has reportedly been delayed and is behind schedule. Ming-Chi Kuo predicts the headset will be unveiled either at an event in the Spring or at WWDC 2023.
More recently, the ultra-reliable Mark Gurman at Bloomberg has suggested Apple will reveal its new headset before WWDC in June. That means we can expect to see Apple Reality Pro sometime before the end of 2023, but we might not see it in stores and on shelves until the back end of the year. This seems to make sense as an earlier unveiling would give developers time to create apps and experiences for Apple Reality Pro.
In February 2023, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that the company, which initially planned to unveil the headset at a standalone event in April, has delayed the announcement until its Worldwide Developer Conference in June. According to that report, Gurman says that the headset is delayed due to "both hardware and software issues [that] still needed to be ironed out." It will also give the company the opportunity to showcase the hardware, software, and developer tools in front of its developer community and at arguably its largest event of the year.
More recently still, one top analyst says that there is a growing probability the Apple VR headset will be released alongside the iPhone 15 in September.
However, even with all these delays factored in, it may be still too early a release to satisfy the needs of Apple's engineering and design teams. There's said to be a degree of internal conflict among Apple's team's surrounding the launch, according to a report from the Financial Times(opens in new tab), with CEO Tim Cook siding with operations chief Jeff Williams to push ahead with a 2023 launch, against the design teams wishes.
Engineers and designers are said to have preferred a potential AR-glasses launch over the ski-goggle like VR-focussed headset which is expected to be the product we'll see before the end of the year. The AR-focussed smaller device, however, remains many years away from being ready — and seemingly too many years away from an onsale-date for Cook's (and shareholders') liking. Former engineers have expressed a "huge pressure to ship" the device, which will represent a milestone in Cook's tenure as CEO, being the first all-new computing product category launch under his leadership.
According to Mark Gurman, the Reality Pro's operating system is called rxOS, and is interally codenamed "Borealis," possibly a nod to the visual spectacle of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights.
According to a report in early 2023, the rxOS operating system will be able to run existing iPhone apps from iOS as 2D windows, however there will also reportedly be a big focus on virtual meetings and education uses.
A patent filed by Apple with the European Patent Office suggests that the operating system may share some features present in MacOS and iOS, too — namely, those relating to Apple's Continuity feature set.
Continuity features such as Handoff and Universal Control, according to the “Multi-Device Continuity for use with Extended Reality (XR) Systems" patent, could let a user select a HomePod speaker to sling a music track to just by looking at it in the real world, or even add virtualised additional display space to a MacBook that you're sat in front of while wearing the headset. It would represent a key selling point against VR competitors like the Meta Quest line, which doesn't have a broad suite of 'companion' devices in its ecosystem to work alongside.
In a report at the end of August 2022, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that Apple has filed multiple trademarks regarding the potential naming of its headset and the processor that will power it.
According to the report, Apple has filed trademark applications through proxies for the names "Reality One," "Reality Pro" and "Reality Processor," in the US, EU, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, and Uruguay.
Going by the flow of rumors coming in, which now suggests Apple will quickly follow up an initial, premium headset launch with a more budget-friendly variant as soon as a year after release, we're expecting the first headset to be the Apple Reality Pro, and the stripped-back version to be the Apple Reality One.
The below drawing is an artist's impression of photos seen by The Information of Apple's AR headset, sporting a fairly regular VR 'goggles' front piece, described as a "sleek, curved visor", and a mesh, interchangeable headband.
Whilst Apple's VR headset was once thought to be a companion device that would use a hub for much of its processing power, it is now understood Apple VR could be a standalone headset that doesn't require any external processing or power supply, so this image broadly matches expectations for how Apple's VR headset could look. Note the headband's design, which is similar to the one seen in the AirPods Max over-ear headphones, potentially bringing some nice visual symmetry to the product line up.
Reports indicate the headset will be made from a mixture of lightweight materials including glass and aluminium. It may also feature a Digital Crown like the Apple Watch and AirPods Max that will be used to change between AR and VR. Turning the dial is said to slowly merge the virtual and real worlds through the headset visor, which would make for an impressive party trick and help with accessibility fears — regular complaints put against VR are those which claim using them makes a user feel claustrophobic and removed from their surroundings.
According to another recent report, the new headset will possibly feature a battery pack that the user wears on their waist, connected to the headset by a cable. This will help to reduce the weight of the headset and will allow for hot-swapping batteries during playing sessions so you don't have to take your headset off and charge it or revert to a wired connection. Despite the pack being expected to come in around the size of two iPhone 14 Pro Max's glued together, the headset is expected to only feature around two hours of battery life. This detail appears to have been debunked now, though it persists in reports online, suggesting that the hip-worn battery pack could potentially be an additional sold-separately accessory.
In a freelance contest run in January 2023, a 3D artist by the name of Ahmed C., created an incredible concept of what the Reality Pro headset could look like. Looking at the concept image below, you can see how Apple could take inspiration from the AirPods Max, Apple Watch, and iPhone for the design elements that make up the headset.