On December 20, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said recently that Apple's AR/VR devices will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2022. If the news comes true, it means that the long-awaited Apple headset will finally be available within a year. listed.

If the news comes true, Apple will likely show the device for the first time at WWDC in June 2022, in order to give relevant developers enough time to prepare the corresponding software ecosystem after the official release of the product. Some industry analysts revealed that the current project is somewhat similar to the previous Apple Watch, everything is ready, and it only owes Dongfeng.

According to the information disclosed so far, the Apple headset has two 4K resolution micro-LED displays, 15 optical modules and two main processors. Functionally, it has Wi-Fi 6E, eye tracking, perspective AR mode, object tracking and gesture control.

A relevant person revealed that the computing power of this AR device will be the same as that of the M1 chip, and the two processors equipped with it are basically the same as the Apple Mac processor, using an ABF carrier board.

This also means that Apple's AR/VR device will be able to run independently without relying on a Mac or iPhone, and can support a wide range of applications rather than specific applications. In this way, it will be possible to make VR/AR the next generation of consumer electronics products that replace mobile phones.

In terms of overall weight, Apple's first AR/VR headset is about 300-400 grams, which is much lighter than the existing VR headsets in the market. At the same time, Ming-Chi Kuo also complained that Apple is developing a second-generation AR/VR headset, which will be lighter than the first-generation headset.

As for the price of the device, it is still unclear, according to some related reports, the final price of this Apple headset product may reach about 3,000 US dollars. However, Ming-Chi Kuo predicted the sales of this device, which is expected to reach 2.5-3.5 million units by 2023.

It’s worth mentioning that Apple’s first headset will be a headset that can support both augmented reality and virtual reality, or MR headsets.

Now that the Metaverse is hot in the market, does Apple's accelerated launch of AR/VR devices mean that it also wants to participate in the wave of the Metaverse?

Apple CEO Cook has responded to this question for a long time. Cook said that he would not use words such as the metaverse, but called this technology augmented reality. Obviously, Cook believes that the two technologies are different.

In terms of suppliers, Largan may become the largest supplier of camera lenses for Apple's AR/VR equipment, and Largan's iPhone VCM has been shipped in the second quarter of 2021, and will continue to contribute revenue in 2022 and profit. Previously, Largan's largest supplier was Huawei, which accounted for 30%-40% of Largan's revenue.

For the majority of AR/VR practitioners, only after Apple actually enters the market will it mean that the AR/VR C-end market has officially opened, which is why Apple's release of related products has attracted so much attention from the market.

Nowadays, most of the headsets are expensive and cannot be afforded by ordinary consumers. For example, the price of HoloLens 2 reaches $3,500, and the price of Magic leap one is as high as $2,000. As a result, players in the industry find that only enterprise users will pay, and only There are only some requirements in some enterprise scenarios.

Want consumers to accept these products, either reduce the product price, or make consumers willing to pay more for this product. However, most manufacturers choose to separate the computing unit to reduce the price of single glasses.

Although the price of the product has dropped in this way, if there is no mobile phone or computer as a computing unit, it means that consumers can only buy a new computing unit, and the price is still very expensive.

But Apple is different. First of all, Apple's brand premium is second to none among the entire smartphone products, and users are also willing to buy related Apple products at high prices, and they are not sensitive to price. In addition, the coverage rate of Apple mobile phones is extremely high, and it competes with the entire Android camp by itself, and its profit ratio far exceeds that of Android.

With these two blessings, it means that the launch of Apple's AR/VR devices will have a high probability of being recognized by consumers as long as its technical capabilities pass the test. Only when the market is up can more developers be attracted to build the entire ecosystem. For now, only Apple can do it.