What They Say
Bloomberg reports that Apple will have a two stage approach to the headset market, starting with a higher priced niche product that will act to help the company develop its platform for a more mainstream product. The report quotes Apple staff as saying that sales might be ‘one headset per store per day’, so around 180K units annually. The headset is expected for more than the current $300 to $900 range for AR products.
The headset is codenamed N301 and is said to be in the ‘late prototype’ stage. The AR solution is codenamed N421, but is in an early stage and is believed to be several years away.
The N301 was initially too heavy and large, so Apple has moved the displays nearer to the eye, Bloomberg said, with a system to include prescription lenses, rather than allowing space for spectacles. However, different lens prescription rules around the world makes this more complicated. After an initial concept of using external processing, it was switched to be self-contained.
What We Think
Apple can afford to take its time to ‘get it right’. The company was years behind the pioneers in the tablet market when it launched the iPad, but it waited until the technology was really right before launching. It can do the same with AR, which also needs a lot of technology as tablets did. (BR)
