Facing competition from Meta’s improving Quest headset line, Apple is having to think hard about the future of its own Vision hardware.
The Apple Vision Pro is presented as a premium mixed-reality headset, but one entering an already occupied marketplace. With the prospect of Meta increasing its footing in the market, Apple has to take a long hard look at itself when it comes to head-mounted displays.
Following the introduction of the improved Quest 3S headset at a price one tenth of the Apple Vision Pro, Apple is now rethinking its current course.
In Sunday’s newsletter from Bloomberg, the Apple Vision Products Group is now evaluating a few different course of action for the headset.
The first and most obvious route is to maintain course, keeping the Vision Pro as a premium model while introducing a less-expensive edition. Made with cheaper materials, the value-based headset would still let Apple come out with a second-gen Pro model.
Apple could also move towards making the headset more like a smart display. By removing the computer element and external battery, the headset will be lighter, cheaper to produce, and force the iPhone into handling processing duties.
It could also go down the smart glasses route, developing something close to Meta’s collaboration with Ray-Ban.
Apple could go down the route of smart glasses but without the glasses element. With claims of AirPods Pro in development with external cameras and AI, this could offer many typical smart glasses applications for all users.
The last “Holy Grail” option is to create AR glasses with all of the possible features. This would include high-performance lenses, battery, onboard computer, cameras, eye tracking, and other features within a pair of fairly standard glasses frames.
The last option is apparently a dream for CEO Tim Cook. However, Apple previously decided to pause development on something similar simply because it was too hard to create at this time.
