In accordance with The Financial Times (via MacRumors), Apple CEO Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams have been pushing to release the Reality Pro mixed reality headset this year. However, Apple’s industrial design team feels the product isn’t ready for prime time. The team wanted to hold off the launch of the Reality Pro until Apple first releases its AR glasses called Apple Glasses. That release has reportedly been pushed back to 2025 or 2026.
Meanwhile, Apple’s operations team wanted the company to release a pair of ski-goggle-like headphones that had limited capabilities. For example, this device would allow users to make FaceTime calls using virtual avatars, which has been discussed for the Reality Pro, watch videos in 3D and exercise along with interactive workouts. Apple engineers who worked on the mixed reality headset told The Financial Times that they were under “a lot of pressure to ship” the Reality Pro.
Apple is expected to introduce the Reality Pro at this year’s WWDC developer conference
The mixed reality headset has been in development by Apple for seven years and is supposedly the most complex product Apple has ever made. The product is expected to cost up to $3,000 and could be equipped with up to 12 cameras and a 4K micro-LED display for each eye. Manipulation of the digital crown, like that of the Apple Watch, will take the user from virtual reality (which creates immersive environments for the user) to augmented reality (which places computer-generated data on top of from a real-world feed).
The Reality Pro is expected to be powered by a 5nm Apple M2 chipset containing nearly 20 billion transistors. Apple is supposed to to introduce Reality Pro at the WWDC developer conference this June with an expected release later this year. The tech giant is designing an expensive ad campaign for the headphones. Apple is also said to be working on a less expensive second-generation headset that could be called the Reality One. These headsets will be priced between $799 and $1,599 and won’t have all the capabilities of the more expensive Reality Pro.