Apple’s Mixed Reality headset ‘single biggest thing’ to boost AR-VR industry

All eyes are set on Apple’s most ambitious hardware launch since 2015 — a Mixed Reality (MR) headset to redefine the era of augmented reality/virtual reality — for the industry that is yet to taste success despite players like Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta.

Although Apple is likely to put a premium price tag of $3,000 on the highly-anticipated ‘Reality Pro’ headset — to be unveiled at its flagship Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) conference here on Monday (US time) — analysts and industry insiders feel that “this is the single greatest thing that could happen to the AR/VR industry”.

At the moment, the AR/VR industry is pretty small, dominated by Meta’s (formerly Facebook) Quest VR headsets.

According to the latest IDC numbers, around 8.8 million AR/VR headsets were shipped globally last year.

Apple, which has a deep penetration of its device portfolio like iPhones, iPads, Macs and Watch, can bring a new lease of life for the AR-VR headsets, say experts.

“Apple has built a strong patent portfolio around Extended Reality (XR), including more than 300 key XR patents, as well as two recent US patents around a potential head-mounted display and its charging system. Through an array of start-up acquisitions, Apple has bolstered its potential XR play,” according to Prabhu Ram, Head, Industry Intelligence Group, CMR.

In a recent interview with GQ magazine, Apple CEO Tim Cook opened up about the potential of AR technology.