Apple's head-mounted display product reveals: 7 years of research and development is still immature, the price may exceed 20,000 yuan, and the forced push raises doubts

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Focus on:

①Apple is expected to release its highly-anticipated mixed reality headset at the developer conference held in June. However, this product is still in the experimental stage, and it is against Apple's tradition and rules to push immature products to the market.

②The appearance of Apple's head-mounted display device is similar to ski goggles, and an independent battery pack needs to be installed in the user's pocket. This complex design also runs counter to the minimalist concept that Apple has always believed in.

③Many investors question: Are consumers willing to spend money and time in the virtual world? Analysts expect Apple's headsets to take off much slower than things like smartphones and smartwatches due to the lack of a killer app, and struggle to appeal to mass consumers.

④Industry insiders said that Apple is no longer willing to wait any longer, because it takes too much time to develop the ideal head-mounted display device, and competitors have already begun to enter the market.

In the coming weeks, Apple is expected to unveil what may be the most experimental and unconventional product in its history, a so-called Mixed-Reality headset that looks like For ski goggles and comes with its own battery pack.

Apple's launch schedule breaks with many of the company's traditions and rules about launching new products that have become the gold standard in the consumer tech industry. Unlike other Apple products, the headset was still experimental when it debuted.

Apple expects the new device to take off more slowly than its smartwatch, the Apple Watch, or its smartphone, the iPhone. Spent seven years in development by Apple before hitting the market, the mixed reality headset will be one of the most complex consumer products any company will ever sell.

Apple's headset combines augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies into a single device, known in the industry as mixed reality. Users who wear the device, such as gamers, will be able to experience a virtual world through a screen on the headset, but also see the physical world around them, the people said, thanks to external cameras.

Apple engineers and executives have spent months preparing a demo version of the device to be shown at Apple's annual developer conference in June. But people familiar with the supply chain say most customers aren't expected to receive the headset until this fall at the earliest. At the same time, many Apple employees and suppliers have questioned whether the launch of the device could be delayed given the challenges of integrating the device with new software, its production and the wider market. Apple may still make adjustments to the timeline.

Apple faced a number of challenges as it tentatively brought this mixed reality device to market, in stark contrast to its usual practice of bringing mature products to market. The expected price of $3,000 was out of reach for many consumers, and the company was already anticipating production issues. Apple is expected to provide the device with a separate battery and install it in a waist pack, a complex design that also runs counter to Apple's usual minimalist philosophy.

Many executives and tech analysts believe that Apple has invested so much money and resources into developing the headset that it is unwilling to wait any longer because it will take too much time to manufacture the desired device and competitors have already entered the market.

Apple released the Apple Watch in 2014, and the mixed-reality headset is the company's first major new product in a decade. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook faces a lot of risk as the device seeks to dominate the metaverse, the virtual world people use for work or leisure, but it has yet to gain mass adoption or understanding.

Some investors and potential future partners are increasingly skeptical: Are consumers willing to spend money and time in the Metaverse? They noted that many early adopters were disappointed with the technology's performance.

Facebook parent company Meta has struggled to keep users engaged and maintain sales of its latest virtual reality headset. The Walt Disney Company shut down the division that worked out the strategy for the Metaverse. Microsoft recently shut down a social virtual reality platform it acquired in 2017 and cut the team that developed headsets for U.S. military projects.

Ronnie Abovitz, founder and former chief executive of augmented reality startup Magic Leap, whose private valuations have plummeted in recent years, said: "Apple is definitely on top of a lot of companies that are trying to climb this mountain. . If you're a multi-trillion dollar company, you deserve to wait."

Throughout Apple's history, consumers have embraced most of its products with a speed that has chilled skeptics. Before the iPod, the market for digital music players was small. Before the iPhone, physical keyboards on smartphones were still clunky. Before the Apple Watch, wearables were decidedly new and had limited appeal to those outside the tech industry. In each of these categories, the entry of Apple has greatly expanded the market.

Many in the industry expect Apple's mixed-reality headset to help boost the size of the overall virtual goods market. Some people who have tried Apple's device say it far exceeds the capabilities of the competition, with a higher level of performance and immersion.

"For mass-market users, virtual reality still lacks a killer app beyond games," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager at IDC, a market research firm. The iPod has music, and the iPhone has a digital camera, which can be used as It is used as a mobile phone and also provides a web browser.

Analysts, engineers and tech executives have come up with other ways to use Apple's mixed reality headset besides playing games, such as taking virtual fitness classes or holding virtual meetings with colleagues around the world. Some see it as a way to enhance education by making some training more experiential. In the future, it could even be used to assist surgeons in their operations.

Many in the industry believe there is still a long way to go before the technology's full potential can be realized. Their near-term vision for mixed reality is that a pair of seemingly ordinary-looking glasses can fully immerse a person in a digital world. The technology needed to make this a reality is likely another decade or so away, including the development of smaller, more energy-efficient computing hardware that could fit inside glasses.

Due to production delays, Apple's Mixed Reality headset is not expected to be mass-produced until September, according to people familiar with the matter. Well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the device is expected to ship around 200,000 to 300,000 units in 2023, far below the first-year output of products such as the iPhone and Apple Watch.

Kuo also expects that Luxshare will help Apple produce a mixed reality headset, and plans to produce a next-generation high-end version that is expected to launch in 2025. Foxconn, Apple's largest iPhone assembler, is expected to produce a second-generation, lower-end version.

The price of the device is expected to be as high as $3,000 (about 20,875 yuan), three times that of Meta's most expensive headset, the Quest Pro. Even selling at such exorbitant prices would mean Apple's hardware profit margins would be tight, the people said.

Apple also had to make major design compromises, such as the device's external battery pack that can be worn on a user's waist, the people said. It is reported that this novel device can also completely wrap the user's eyes like goggles, so that the wearer cannot directly see the surrounding environment like ordinary glasses.

“Mixed reality headsets don’t make a lot of sense to me as an Apple product,” said Michael Guttenberg, Apple’s former senior director of worldwide product marketing, who left in 2016, adding that he thinks Cook prefers to sell A product that appeals to the mass market, this headset is clearly only going to appeal to enthusiasts.

Apple vice president Mike Rockwell, who was in charge of the headset project, joined Apple in 2015 from audio technology company Dolby and began to build a huge team. The team initially maintained strong independence, operating almost like a startup, free to experiment, former employees said. The team built a number of different hardware prototypes, including a giant rig that demonstrated the desired capabilities of the headset. Even as the capabilities of the device impressed humans, team members realized that the technology to make it was still severely limited.

One of Apple's early ideas was to wirelessly connect mixed-reality headsets to base stations to offload the heavy computation it required, some former employees said. But then-incumbent chief design officer Jony Ive objected to the product design and encouraged the team to develop a standalone headset. Ive left Apple in 2019 and remained an outside consultant until stepping down last year.

In 2019, longtime Apple software manager Kim Wallas was brought in to help Rockwell's team shift its focus to launching the product, according to people familiar with the matter. With Wallas on board, the headset team is working more in line with Apple's product development standards and timelines. Since then, Rockwell's team has ramped up development efforts and has been operating in an intense, high-pressure fashion, aiming to deliver a sleek, functional device.

Several times over the past few years, Rockwell's team had planned to release the device, but the need to coordinate software and hardware to work properly led to several delays, multiple departing employees and other people familiar with the matter said.

Supporting a developer ecosystem will be critical to the success of a hardware device, as users will need to download such systems and immerse themselves in them. Apple employees are trying to develop a "killer app" for the headset and have already begun work on a Facetime-like product and a way to port its mobile app to the device, the people said.

By unveiling a mixed reality headset at its developer conference in June, Apple will be signaling that it hopes the event will spark developer interest in creating more content for the headset. Many sessions will be devoted to software development for the new device, people familiar with the conference schedule said. (Golden Deer)