Apple announces its next major event where it’s expected to launch a HUGE new product
- Apple will host its annual developers’ conference between June 5 and June 9
- iPhone maker is expected to use the event to unveil its mixed reality headset
- It will allegedly have 10 cameras and and an operating system called realityOS
After nearly eight years of development, Apple is expected to finally unveil its hotly-anticipated mixed reality headset this June.
The tech giant has confirmed that its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) will take place between June 5 and June 9.
Apple published a blog post confirming the dates with a cryptic promo image featuring curving coloured lines – a possible nod to the headset.
Although it didn’t make any mention of the headset in the announcement, respected leaker Mark Gurman has said it will finally get its public debut in June.
It will allegedly have 10 cameras and and an operating system called realityOS with mixed reality versions of Apple apps such as FaceTime and Maps.
A glimpse of the new headset? A cryptic promo image for Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) this year features curving coloured lines
According to Apple, WWDC will show off the latest developments in its range of software – iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS.
Apple’s MR headset: Rumours
Release: Q4 2023
Processors:
– One ‘higher-end’ similar to the M1 or M2
– One lower-end to manage ‘sensor-related aspects’
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E
Price: $3,000 (£2,400)
The five-day event will be presented online, although there will be an opportunity for ‘developers and students to celebrate in person at a special experience’ hosted at Apple Park, the firm’s Cupertino HQ, on opening day.
‘WWDC is one of our favorite times of the year at Apple,’ said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations.
‘It’s an opportunity to connect with the talented developers from around the globe who make this community so extraordinary.
‘WWDC23 is going to be our biggest and most exciting yet, and we can’t wait to see many of you online and in person at this very special event!’
According to Gurman, Apple’s upcoming mixed reality headset was demonstrated for 100 of the firm’s top brass at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California last week.
Expected to cost $3,000 (£2,400), the new headset will overlay digital objects on a view of the real world.
The leaker has described it as ‘the next major platform beyond the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch’.
This year’s five-day WWDC will be presented online, although there will be an opportunity for ‘developers and students to celebrate in person at a special experience’ hosted at Apple Park (pictured), the firm’s Cupertino HQ, on the opening day (June 5)
Apple has increasingly moved into augmented reality technology. In 2017, it launched AR Kit, an augmented reality platform for developers to create apps and other software using the tech
‘The demonstrations were polished, glitzy and exciting, but many executives are clear-eyed about Apple’s challenges pushing into this new market,’ Gurman said in his latest newsletter.
Apple headset will have 10 cameras and feature a 3D world – READ MORE
A drawing by The Information depicting what Apple’s device could look like
It’s long been thought Apple is working on two different augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) products – the first is a headset that would cover the eyes, similar to Meta’s Oculus Quest.
The second, a sleeker pair of AR glasses possibly called Apple Glass, will come at a later date.
AR layers computer-generated images on top of an existing reality – Pokémon Go being a famous example – while VR is wholly virtual and mixed reality (MR) combines the two.
Just like the iPhone and the Apple Watch, the headset will be followed by new updated iterations in the following years.
While Gurman thinks the first version will be a ‘dud’ in terms of sales compared with the company’s existing hardware, future versions will likely do better as the product finds its niche.
For now, Apple will have to explain to consumers why they’d want to own such a device and how it’s an improvement over the likes of iPhone and iPad.
Apple’s Technology Development Group – the team behind its mixed-reality efforts – has discreetly shown the product to the company’s top decision makers every year since 2018, Gurman added.
But earlier demos were lower-key affairs compared to the one last week, which was ‘Apple’s biggest showcase’ prior to the official launch..
When exactly it will be released is unknown, although Apple doesn’t wait long to release products following their announcement so it will likely hit the shelves later in 2023.
Apple has long been rumoured to be developing an AR wearable. The tech giant filed a patent in 2019 (pictured) that gives a glimpse into what it may be developing behind closed doors
Apple’s oft-rumoured augmented reality headset could launch as soon as the fourth quarter of 2022, according to one Hong Kong-based analyst
Ming-Chi Kuo, another analyst and Apple leaker based in Taiwan, has already said that the headset will come packed with two processors – one ‘similar’ those used in its Mac computers and iPads, and another to manage ‘sensor-related aspects’.
Apple has long been rumoured to be developing an AR wearable; the tech giant filed a patent in 2019 that gives a glimpse into what it may be developing behind closed doors.
The patent describes the creation of a virtual user interface that can be used on a device resembling an iPhone, as well as a wireless headset.
These items would then ‘provide a live view of at least a portion of the contents that are within the field of view of the cameras and optionally generate video outputs’.
Apple made its first major step into the AR world with the release of ARKit in 2017, its augmented reality platform for developers, which spawned numerous apps for the iPhone and the iPad.
Apple is working on an all-glass smartphone, patent suggests
Apple is working on an iPhone that has a glass display going all the way around, a new patent suggests.
Dubbed ‘a single slab of glass’, the patent shows a device with displays on both its front and back, as well as touchscreen buttons on its curved glass edges.
Fitting the back of an iPhone with a 360-degree glass display could potentially more than double the display size, without changing the shape or size of the device.
Users of the device could potentially have two different displays on the front and back, or alternatively keep one display facing them if they turned it in their hand.
British product designed Jony Ive, who worked for Apple from 1992 to 2019, previously spoke about the concept of an all-glass iPhone, dubbed ‘a single slab of glass’, according to reports going back to 2016.
Former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive (left) and Apple CEO Tim Cook inspect the iPhone XR during an Apple event at the Steve Jobs Theatre in September 2018. Ive may have sparked Apple’s work on an all-glass iPhone
Ive was responsible for pioneering many of the company’s most iconic products, including the iPod, iPhone and iPad.
Despite his departure to set up his own design company, work on an all-glass smartphone appears to still be making progress, the new patent suggests.
According to a report last year, Ive had a hand in delaying Apple’s augmented reality (AR) product, still yet to hit the market.
The AR headset was originally envisioned as dependent on an external device resembling a small Mac that handled most of its processing power and wirelessly broadcast the information to the headset.
While that would have made the headset much more powerful, Ive reportedly disliked the idea of making a headset that was contingent on separate hardware.
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