Employees raise questions about Apple's MR headset that is about to be released



Apple has long been rumored to be developing its own mixed reality (MR) headset, which is said to be on sale within a few months. However, it was reported that there was a voice of doubt from within Apple about this Apple's MR headset.

At Apple, Rare Dissent Over a New Product: Interactive Goggles - The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/26/technology/apple-augmented-reality-dissent.html



Apple staff reportedly express doubts about mixed-reality headset months ahead of launch - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/26/23657317/apple-headset-launch-employee-concerns

Around 2018, Apple held an internal meeting about its next flagship product. Among them, Jonathan Ive , who was in charge of Apple's design at the time, released a sophisticated concept video like Apple's TVCM and attracted 100 Apple executives who were participating in the conference. bottom. In this concept video, a man in a taxi in London, England wears an AR headset, calls his wife in San Francisco, and says, 'Would you like to come to London?' The content is to share the streets of the city with AR. With this video, Apple seems to have found the business possibility of `` a headset that fuses the digital world and the real world ''.

Apple is said to be preparing to announce its MR headset in June 2023, but there are many skeptical voices within the company, eight people who provided information to The New York Times Anonymous employees and former employees speak. The reasons why Apple is raising concerns are that the MR headset is priced at $ 3,000 (about 390,000 yen), questions about its practicality, and concerns about an unproven market.



According to three sources, there are several employees who have left Apple questioning the possibility of Apple's MR headset development project. Also, in the development of MR headsets, development has not progressed due to elements such as 'using voice assistant Siri', and it seems that some employees were dismissed for this reason.

Executive-class employees are also questioning the future of MR headsets, and it seems that employees in the design department in particular have voiced strong opposition. Regarding Apple's MR headset, it was reported in March 2023 that ``CEO Tim Cook will be released after the designer's warning of ``insufficient preparation''.

It is reported that Apple's MR headset will be released after Tim Cook's designer's ``insufficient preparation'' warning - GIGAZINE



Over the past decade, the technology industry has been told that the next wave of computing after smartphones will be VR, AR, and MR. Apple CEO Cook said to students in 2022, ``In the near future, you will think, ``How would you live without AR? How did such a human being grow up?”

However, AR-related technologies are ``full of failures, miscalculations, and disappointments, including Google Glass, Magic Leap, HoloLens, and Quest Pro,'' The New York Times points out. Apple has so far combined new hardware and software to create revolutionary devices, so the New York Times said that it could be a savior in the AR field as well. However, even Apple points out that there are a lot of challenges.

Competitor Meta is struggling to build a virtual reality business with hundreds of billions of dollars, and has successfully sold 20 million units of the VR headset Quest 2 since 2020. However, Meta's virtual reality business is still in the red , and Meta has announced significant price cuts for Quest Pro and Quest 2 to further popularize VR headsets.

Meta announces significant price cuts for ``Quest Pro'' & ``Quest 2'', Quest Pro will be reduced by 67,300 yen - GIGAZINE



Some sources who were involved in Apple's MR headset development project speculate that Apple may delay the release of the MR headset in light of the global recession. Apple has postponed the launch of new products in the past, and the lost item tracker AirTags was delayed for more than a year to address privacy issues.

According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, the number of MR headsets shipped by Apple is expected to be 'less than 500,000 units in the first year'. ``Apple has always entered the market when the market was already established and changed the market,'' said Carolina Milanesi, a consumer technology analyst at research firm Creative Strategies. In other words, it points out that it is unusual for Apple to enter the virtual reality business, which is still in its infancy, at this time.

Apple's MR headset looks like ski goggles, with a carbon fiber housing, a hip pack to support the battery, an outward-facing camera to capture the real world, and applications to movies. It seems to have two 4K displays for rendering everything up to. Furthermore, by turning the dial attached to the main unit, it seems that it will be possible to increase or decrease the real-time image of the surrounding world. Also, since this MR headset is not designed to be worn while wearing glasses, there are plans to sell special prescription lenses for people who do not use contact lenses.



It seems that Apple has been developing MR headsets on the premise of spending time with others via video conferencing and virtual world avatars. In addition, Apple calls its application for MR headsets 'Copresence', which has been pointed out to be like Meta's 'Metaverse'.

However, it is expected that Apple will sell the MR headset in a different way from Meta, and Cook said in an interview with Dutch media, ``The word Metaverse is unfamiliar to the general public, so it is not recommended to use it. I want to avoid it,' he said.

in Hardware, Posted by logu_ii