Published , by Chris Jarrard
Published , by Chris Jarrard
If you spend enough time following the internet rumor mills, you’ve probably seen stories with speculation that tech giant Apple is preparing to enter any number of existing or emerging markets. One such rumor has been floating around for years that Apple has plans to enter the virtual reality and augmented reality markets with their own device. While mass-market adoption of VR hardware is still in the early stages, some competitors, such as Facebook, have seen some early success. Industry insiders believe Apple is busy with their own VR headset but warn that the device could see a delay into 2023.
Apple’s new device reportedly operates as a hybrid that could allow both virtual reality and augmented reality functionality. Industry insiders believed that the device was scheduled to debut at this year’s WWDC with a retail release towards the holiday season. Those plans now appear to be up in the air and the headset release could slip into next year.
The report speculates that the team at Apple is being forced to delay the release as they have run into hiccups and roadblocks during development. VR headsets are complicated and the insiders speculate that Apple is still dealing with properly cooling the internal components, tracking issues, and just about any other obstacle that companies with VR hardware must overcome.
Facebook has been enjoying headlines with the success of their Oculus Quest 2 device, but that headset arrived after several retail device releases and more than a decade of collaborative work from industry veterans across multiple companies. Apple is likely to get this sorted out before long, but they will need to get the device in front of developers as soon as possible. While the 2022 WWDC would have been a perfect place to do this, we may not see this come to fruition until the 2023 version of the event.
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