Apple is expected to release a mixed reality headset in the next year, but sticker shock is likely to be induced among the masses.
Kif Leswing for CNBC:
The best-selling virtual reality headset, the Meta Quest 2, retails for $ 400 and accounted for 78% of the nascent virtual reality market in 2021, according to IDC. Consumers who want next-generation technology will have to spend a lot of it.
Meta’s next high-end headset, codenamed Cambria, is expected to cost at least $ 800, the company said earlier this year. Apple’s unannounced device could reportedly cost thousands of dollars. This is a heavy load for products in a category that has yet to go mainstream. Only 11.2 million VR units were shipped last year, IDC said. Apple sells a lot of iPhones every few weeks.
Believers in mixed reality say that eventually we will be able to condense the technology into a pair of lightweight glasses with clear lenses. But this is for the future.
MacDailyNews takes: We can already hear the simpletons: Apple’s headset is the most expensive phone in the world and business customers don’t like it because it doesn’t have a keyboard which makes it not a great email device.
Of course, Apple’s first mixed reality headset won’t be for the mass market consumer.
The large and “expensive” VR headset will exist, in part, as a means for developers to create the next AR killer apps for real, lightweight, and powerful Apple smart glasses. – MacDailyNews, February 4, 2021
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