It’s been a few months, even a few years, thatApple prepares (in all discretion) its entry into the VR. The apple brand is particularly known for having used fictitious companies in the past to file trademarks before launches, in particular for the names of versions of macOS. Well, maybe that’s the case here with Immersive Health Solutions LLCsubsidiary ofApplewho registered several trademarks: RealityOne, Reality Pro and Reality Processor.
Last year, Bloomberg, The Information and supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo published reports claiming thatApple was preparing to launch a high-end headset for the VR and AR with high-definition color transition. Kuo assured that this helmet would be significantly lighter than helmets VR existing ones and that it would be equipped with two 4K OLED micro-displays.
Last May, The Information published a detailed report about the eventful history of the project. The report describes the headset using three chips, with the main processor based on the M2 used in the last MacBook. This processor would be associated with a chip dedicated to image signal processing and a third acting as a “fast conduit” between the two. The brand suggests that the combination of these chips could be called Reality Processor.
Bloomberg and The Information both report that the helmetApple expected to cost over $2,000. Denominations RealityOne and Reality Pro raise questions about the hope of seeing the arrival later a less expensive model, in order to match the other product lines ofApple – a strategy that the company would plan for 2025 according to Kuo.
This same Kuo predicts thatApple would hold a media event in January 2023, ship dev kits 2-4 weeks later, and launch pre-orders in Q2 2023 for release before the WWDC 2023. As a reminder, the WWDC is the annual conference ofApple on software, which is almost always held in June. This point leaves us rather skeptical, because to develop applications VRit takes more than a few months and a launch of the helmet without a store well filled out would be a sure miss. To be continued.
If you haven’t taken the plunge yet, you can treat yourself to a Oculus Quest 2 at the house of Bakerthe Fnac, Darty or Amazon for €349.99. You can also find good PCs for gamers there.