Apple said to offer two headsets by 2025

The more affordable, lower-end version of an Apple headset arriving in 2025 could ship 10x the units of the inaugural $3,000 model expected to debut in 2023.

Rendering imagining Apple's Reality Pro headset in four colors
The budget-friendly 2025 device might sell 10x better vs. 2023’s $3,000 model aiming developers and early adopters | Image: Ahmed Chenni/Freelancer.com
  • Apple is allegedly already working on a successor to its first mixed-reality headset that it’s yet to formally unveil next month.
  • The second-generation model arriving by 2025 should offer high-end and low-end versions with different capabilities, materials and prices.
  • The low-end model should be much more affordable than the inaugural version that’s expected to cost $3,000 and pack in cutting-edge hardware.

Kuo: Two Apple headsets coming in 2025

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a Medium post that Apple’s 2025 headset could sell ten times more units than the first-generation model, which is estimated to sell between 500,000 and one million units this year.

“Apple’s second-generation AR/VR headset is expected to go into mass production in 2025,” the analyst wrote. “There will be two versions, a high-end and a low-end,” he added. “Shipments of the second generation in 2025 are expected to be around ten times those of the first generation in 2023.”

Kuo first predicted in February that the second-generation headset would come in high-end and low-end versions. Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman and The Information‘s Wayne Ma reported earlier this year that a “budget-friendly” version could have lower-resolution lenses and iPhone-level chips to trim production costs.

The headset resembles ski goggles

Apple’s headset is said to look like ski goggles. The head-worn accessory is rumored to combine AR/VR functions into a sleek, lightweight head-worn device.

It’ll have over a dozen eye/hand tracking cameras, run custom chips with Mac-level performance and use an external battery pack to keep the weight down.

The device will have its own App Store, and Apple is said to provide AR/VR versions of its apps like Messages, FaceTime, Safari, Notes and others. It could also run iPad apps from the App Store with little or no modification. Apple will also release tools to developers to support third-party app development for the headset.

Apple is expected to unveil the headset at WWDC, which runs June 5-9, and showcase xrOS, its new Extended Reality Operating System platform.