Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman says Apple will debut a mixed-reality headset in 2023. The headset will run its own operating system (currently termed “xrOS”), and Gurman says there are “many problems to figure out.”
Previous predictions stated the headgear might be disclosed as early as this month. However that has shifted to “spring 2023 announcement, fall 2023 launch.” The latest story offers few new specifics regarding the headset. The headset launch will likely divert business resources this year.
Gurman thinks the iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and AirPod lineups will suffer the most. All of them had big revisions in 2022, and most updates this year will be mere “spec bumps.” New iPad Pros aren’t expected until 2024. iOS, iPadOS, and macOS will have “fewer big changes than intended.”
In 2007, Apple delayed macOS because it needed to “borrow” resources to finish the original iPhone. Apple is a much bigger company with a lot more resources now, but it also has a lot more products to take care of. Therefore it reportedly put a freeze on hiring in October, when the mixed-reality headset will come out.
Apple’s next headset apparently runs xrOS. The future headgear features two 4K OLED microdisplays, 120-degree field-of-view lenses, automatic IPD correction, LiDAR depth sensors, and support for second-generation AirPods Pro. The headset reportedly has “more than a dozen” cameras and sensors for facial, eye, hand, and leg monitoring.
We can still look forward to non-headset hardware. Apple will reportedly introduce a larger HomePod with a S8 chip from the latest Apple Watches at a reduced price. All iPhone 15 versions will have Dynamic Island, USB-C, faster CPUs, and other design changes.