Sources: Apple indefinitely postpones its lightweight AR glasses due to technical difficulties and is instead planning a lower-cost MR headset for 2024 or 2025
Apple Inc. is still planning to unveil its first mixed-reality headset this year, but an even more important follow-up product …
The reported change makes the lower-cost mixed-reality model—not lightweight glasses—Apple’s stated follow-up path. It matters because the company is preserving the first headset launch while narrowing the near-term product sequence around a form factor it can more readily bring forward.
First-order effects
Apple indefinitely removes lightweight AR glasses from its product timetable because of technical difficulties, while maintaining plans to unveil its first mixed-reality headset this year.
Apple’s next reported hardware priority becomes a lower-cost mixed-reality headset targeted for 2024 or 2025, rather than a direct transition to glasses.
Second-order effects
The first mixed-reality headset becomes Apple’s nearer-term platform for working through the program’s hardware and software challenges before the lower-cost follow-up; related coverage later reported a postponement tied to those issues.
Apple’s product planning now concentrates its near-term mixed-reality lineup in headsets, leaving the glasses effort without the timetable earlier roadmaps had implied.
Third-order effects
If this sequencing persists, Apple’s spatial-computing strategy will develop through progressively cheaper mixed-reality headsets rather than a rapid move from headsets to all-day AR glasses.
The recurring gap between headset ambitions and reported engineering hurdles suggests that lightweight glasses are a distinct technical threshold, not simply the next scheduled version of a mixed-reality device.
The trend: Apple’s reported roadmap reflects a broader shift in which mixed-reality headsets serve as the nearer-term route to spatial computing while lightweight AR glasses remain constrained by engineering readiness.
New story: Apple has indefinitely postponed development of its standalone AR glasses and is planning a lower cost mixed-reality headset for next year as a follow-up to the first version coming this year https://www.bloomberg.com/...
We are going to have a Apple HMD next year, they say, for almost 10 years now. It's not helpful to pay too much attention to those #Apple #AR, #VR rumors. Apple is very good in cancelling projects (in a good way) last minute before launch. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
A bit of a shame they are reportedly delayed - the AR “glasses” 👓 are the big TAM opportunity, the MR “headset” is likely a niche item (but at least will be a good development platform for the same sort of apps that can make it to a future AR glasses product eventually). https://…
Just as I think I have caught up on all the news from @theinformation for the day. A big one that is a surprise to the industry. Nice @waynema https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
This is disappointing to me insofar as I'm way more excited about this product than the mixed reality headset. I feel like there's way more practical value for glasses than a device that covers your whole face in short bursts. https://twitter.com/...
@rsgnl I cannot fathom them shipping a headset with a cable like that. Hope it's not required at all times. But is more like a portable back up charger.
At CES I chatted with the company I'm certain is developing the waveguides, lens display and engine with Apple. Saw their latest and greatest and the tech is very far off. https://twitter.com/...
@ParkerOrtolani It sounds incredibly un-Apple-like to me (and yes I'm aware of various Apple Pencil/Magic Mouse charging situations, but that's overblown for memes)
Mark Gurman on Apple's headset: “The battery will connect to the headset over a cable and rest in a user's back pocket.” Bold of Apple to think I wear pants