Apple is supposedly working with unnamed third-party brands to release its rumored augmented reality headset accessory in the second quarter of next year.
That’s according to revered Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities, who wrote in a note to clients Wednesday, seen by MacRumors, that the oft-rumored accessory will enter mass production as soon as the fourth quarter of this year.
That would suggest that the product’s technical specifications and design have been locked for several months now. The report also corroborates or at least validates prior rumors that called for an augmented reality glasses or a similar head-worn device with the shiny Apple logo on it.
Changying Precision is tipped to be the main chassis supplier.
Apple currently supports HTC’s Vive headset for VR content creation through SteamVR, Unity or any other development environment on the Mac, but the new iOS 13 and macOS Catalina updates feature expanded support for third-party AR headsets and controllers.
Similar evidence was also found in the final golden master builds of iOS 13 and Xcode.
Confirmed, there's no artifacts on Xs/Xr, and whole experience is a lot smoother. It appears that I've launched StarTester mode on my X in spite of all hardware locks:) pic.twitter.com/cAjmmbFbxG
— xSnow (@__int32) September 20, 2019
Kuo previously reported that a first-party AR headset from Apple would be entering mass production in this holiday quarter ahead of early-2020 launch. CNET thinks that the accessory may be a standalone device with some crazy tech specs but Kuo isn’t so convinced as his predictions so far have described basically an advanced head-mounted display requiring an iPhone for computations, positioning, networking, location services and so forth.
I’m gonna go on record in saying that I don’t for one second believe that ‘AR headset’ support in iOS 13 is for third-party devices 😂 I think there’s only one headset, and it’s imminent. But like anything, if the hardware’s not ready the software will lie dormant another year
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) April 25, 2019
One developer was even able to use an AR headset test mode in the iOS 13.1 beta.
According to Bloomberg’s write-up from November 2017, an Apple AR headset should be powered by a custom, in-house designed processor and a brand-new operating system.
Apple’s understood to have shifted its software executive Kim Vorrath over to the team in charge of building the rumored AR headset, with a report from The Information speculating that his inclusion on the AR team is meant to “bring some order” to the proceedings.
Would you consider an AR headset from Apple?
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