Ming-Chi Kuo, the respected Apple analyst, is reporting that the company is tackling enthusiasm for its upcoming mixed reality headset, which was rumored to see its big announcement at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June and all because of a very unstable VR market.
Note that some anonymous employees of Manzana have already shown their concern and differences regarding the latter device of mixed reality that the company intends to launch foreseeably this year, because they consider that it is destined to fail. As reported by The New York Times, many of them believe that this is not yet ready to be released and many of them have decided to abandon the project and leave the company.
Apple CEO Tim Cook was also said to have been a leading force in pushing for the device’s 2023 launch, something that was reportedly a source of tension between the Apple boss and the industrial design team, that they advised him to wait until 2025 or even 2026.
Despite this, it is almost confirmed that finally —and after several delays— they will see the light of day in June 2023. The problem that arises here is that this revelation seems to come at a time when the demand for virtual reality high-end is quite low.
Apple continues with its plans to launch mixed reality glasses in 2023 despite the instability of the VR market
the same Ming Chi Kuo warning of a very hostile environment in relation to the virtual reality in which the benefits seem not to be part of the new releases for this year and precisely Apple is on this list.
According to a recent publication of his and as reported by The Vergethis states either that Sony has cut its 2023 production plan for the PS VR2 by 20% or that Pico’s (China’s largest AR/VR headset brand) shipments in 2022 were more than 40% lower than expected.
Furthermore, Kuo says that due to the device’s delay in mass production, “The shipping forecast this year is just 200,000 to 300,000 units, below the market consensus of 500,000 units or more.”
“The main concerns that Apple is not very optimistic regarding market feedback on the AR/MR glasses announcement include the economic downturn, compromises in some hardware specifications for mass production (such as weight), the preparation of the ecosystem and applications, a high sale price (3,000 or 4,000 dollars), etc.”Kuo concludes.
With this context, It seems that Apple is already smelling the failure of its next mixed reality glassesbut all signs point to the company revealing the device on June 5, and if things continue as they are, it’s safe to say that Apple will launch its device at the wrong time.