The Apple AR/VR headset may be just around the corner. Can we expect a 2022 announcement this fall??
A report last week by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has revealed that Apple has internally begun demonstrating its secret AR/VR headset concept. “Apple Inc. executives previewed its upcoming mixed-reality headset to the company’s board last week, indicating that development of the device has reached an advanced stage”, Gurman mentioned in the Bloomberg article. The company’s board, comprising of 8 directors and Apple CEO Tim Cook, meets at least four times each year to evaluate the Silicon Valley giant’s progress. This time, the board members were made privy to what seems like a final version of Apple’s augmented reality headset prototype that the world has been referring to as Apple Glass.
Apple Glass concept by Antonio De Rosa
This marks an important milestone in Apple’s roadmap, hinting at the fact that the AR glasses are in their most advanced stage. It also would be Apple’s FIRST new product (not including the AirPods Max) to be announced without the company’s legendary former designer Jony Ive. The Apple Watch was announced back in 2014 when Ive was the Chief Design Officer.
Here’s a look at a concept pair of Apple AR glasses created by Antonio De Rosa, designed to resemble the iconic spectacles Steve Jobs wore. De Rosa’s Apple Glass concept comes equipped with 6 cameras that perform environment-mapping, eye tracking, and hand + gesture recognition. Everything sits in a frame that’s incredibly slim, looking less like hardware and more like a fashion accessory – an approach that’s important Apple’s fashion-friendly ethos. The Apple Glass concept even comes along with a rather wide charging case, styled to look like an elongated version of the company’s AirPods case.
In recent weeks, Apple has also ramped up the development of a new native OS for its rumored headset, codenamed rOS, or reality operating system. That progress, coupled with the board presentation, hints at the fact that we could be a few mere months away from Tim Cook announcing the new product. Chances are, however, that we’ll see production leaks to get a better idea of the AR headset’s design once Apple begins reaching out to manufacturers with a concrete production-ready prototype.
