Tim Cook Is Going Against Apple’s Design Team to Launch the VR Headset, According to Report

Apple is usually tight-lipped when it comes to releasing detail on absolutely anything before the ‘thing’ is officially announced. But there’s no shortage of buzz around the rumoured Apple VR/AR headset. The latest buzz is that Apple’s VR/AR headset is debuting this year amid tension internally, surrounding just how ready the product is for the market. According to a report from the Financial Times, Apple’s operations team originally wanted to release the headset in a ‘version one’ ski-goggles form, with limited capabilities like 3D videos, interactive workouts and a revamped VR FaceTime. However, the industrial design team argued that the headset should be pushed back until it can be presented in a more lightweight form. This team has been fairly core to Apple’s success over the past two decades, as it was spearheaded by legendary industrial designer Jony Ive before his departure in 2019. Ultimately, as the report reads, Apple CEO Tim Cook has sided with operations chief Jeff Williams to launch it this year, after numerous release pushbacks. The company is expecting to sell around one million units during the first year, with a “marketing blitz” being prepared around it. Here’s what we’ve learned across dozens of reports leading up to now.

Apple’s VR/AR headset debut

Apple’s VR/AR headset could debut as soon as June in 2023, with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reporting that it will appear at Apple’s WWDC event (though it was originally expected in January 2023). Gurman says that 2023 will be “the year of Apple’s mixed-reality headset and not much else” and that it’s planning a retail augmented-reality experience. The headset will apparently sport an operating system titled xrOS, with the device likely called the Reality Pro.

Apple’s VR/AR headset features

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in January 2023, the VR/AR headset will feature hand tracking, attempting to create a “3D version of the iPhone’s operating system”. Gurman’s report also indicates that the headset will start at $US3,000, or about $4,214 in Australia. The headset is expected to feature a digital crown, letting you switch between VR and virtual pass-through. Coming from The Information in January 2023 (and as reported by The Verge), the headset is expected to offer colour pass-through, letting you switch between a fully virtual experience and seeing your real surroundings through the front camera using a non-haptic knob on the device (similar to the knob on the AirPods Max or the Apple Watch). This could be a way that Apple’s offering less claustrophobia in the headset, giving the user the ability to look around their real environment without taking the device off, however, it could also inform Apple’s XR applications for the device, similar to that of the Quest Pro and its virtual desktop screens (shown below). Apple’s iOS 17 update for phones is expected to include a VR/AR supporting app, according to HowToiSolve. Supposedly, it’ll be like the Watch app, but will have “significantly” more features. It’s not surprising that the iPhone would have an app that brings the VR/AR headset closer to the rest of the ecosystem, but it is especially interesting seeing all of these tidbits come out about the device.

Back in October 2022, we learned the device may boast iris-tracking. A report in The Information revealed the headset may look like a pair of ski goggles and that it would be made of “mesh fabrics, aluminium and glass” and would be thinner and weigh less than the recently announced Meta Quest Pro.

As detailed by ArsTechnica, the new headset will scan a user’s irises so they can be recognised and log into their individual accounts the instant they put on the headset. This feature would work for multiple users, making it straightforward to pass the headset from one person to another, for example. Additionally, the iris-scanning tech will be used to authenticate payments, the reports indicated. The VR headset will also reportedly allow users who wear glasses to “magnetically clip on prescription lenses inside the headset.” Following reports from May 2022 that mentioned trademark filings, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that Apple’s entry into the space will be a catalyst for the growth of virtual and augmented reality, and dubs the company a “game-changer for the headset industry.” According to reports from earlier this year, Apple wants it known that it isn’t keen on following Meta into the metaverse when its AR headset is released. In a newsletter from Bloomberg’s Gurman, we learned Apple has rejected the idea of an all-virtual world for its long-rumoured mixed reality headset. As you all know by now, an all-virtual world is a premise for the metaverse. According to the report, the very idea of a metaverse-like existence for the VR headset is “off limits”. Instead, it says the focus of Apple’s VR headset would be on short stints of communication, content viewing and gaming. It sounds like Apple CEO Tim Cook won’t follow the lead of Facebook, er, Meta, and just about every other company that has chimed in recently to discuss the ways they can bring us closer to a poorly defined, ill-conceived future where the physical and digital world melt together via the use of VR, AR and mixed reality. When we say ‘mixed reality’ this usually means augmented reality/virtual reality. There are only a number of ways the device can look, but as the device is yet to be officially confirmed, we’re left to assume it will be a VR headset as you know it, but smothered in the Apple feel. Though Apple hasn’t confirmed any details about its headset, reports have painted a vivid picture of what to expect. The most telling comes from The Information, which cites anonymous sources as saying the headset will run on a 5nm TSMC chip (with similar power to the M1). The headset will reportedly include two 8K displays, more than a dozen cameras for hand-tracking, and will retail for upwards of $4,000 in Australia. Oh, it’s expected this thing will also incorporate 14 cameras. But Kuo thinks the company is already working on a second-generation AR/VR headset set for a 2025 release, this time featuring both a high-end and a more affordable option. Initial reports indicated you might require an Apple iPhone to enjoy the VR headset, but it seems this will just be the same as any other Apple device: the experience is better with an iPhone, but not a requirement. “All eyes will be on Apple as it launches its first headset next year,” IDC research director Ramon Llamas wrote in 2022. “Further iterations will likely show evolution that will grow by leaps and bounds.”

Apple’s VR/AR headset name

It was reported back in August 2022 that the phone and computer company filed patent names for what could be its VR/AR headset, according to Bloomberg. Apple itself didn’t make the filings, but it’s similar to Apple’s patent filing strategy that it has done with other products. “Reality One”, “Reality Pro” and “Reality Processor” were the names filed. Bloomberg reports that patents were filed in the U.S., EU, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica and Uruguay. There’s no guarantee that these are, in fact, the real names of Apple’s upcoming VR headsets, but Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has consistently been a reliable source for Apple leaks and rumours. In December 2022, however, more details of the headset were sprinkled out, including mass shipments of the device could kick off in the latter half of 2023 as the company deals with “software-related issues.”

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My latest survey indicates that the mass shipment schedule of Apple's MR headset may delay to 2H23 because of software-related issues (vs. the previous estimate of 2Q23).

— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) December 4, 2022

We’ll keep you updated on any other rumours and leaks. This post has been updated since it was first published.

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