According to reports making rounds online Apple’s decision to take on the Metaverse through the creation of its augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headset would require a monthly subscription service for all her users. In a report shared by TrendForce, a world leading research and market intelligence provider which forecasted the growing sales of AR and VR devices from major tech companies for the year 2022, reveals that Apple’s headset will likely be consumer-oriented and launch with similar pricing as Microsoft’s HoloLens, which starts at $3,500. However the report by TrendForce also suggest that Apple may likely offer users a monthly subscriptions for its AR/VR service. Surprised?
According to TrendForce’s report “Strong shipments of Oculus and Microsoft products will likely force Apple to release relevant products to join the competition this year. However, TrendForce states, considering hardware performance requirements and gross profit margins, Apple will likely target the commercial market and adopt the same pricing strategy as HoloLens, hardware priced in the thousands of dollars and a monthly subscription-based software solution. Overall, TrendForce believes that the launch of new products this year by Apple, Meta, and Sony may be delayed and will not add significant growth to the overall AR/VR market for the time being.”
As surprising as this may be, this is first time rumor has it that Apple’s headset would be accompanied by a subscription plan. However, what may seem comforting is the fact that this subscription service may provide integration for other Apple services such as Apple Music or even an Apple One Bundle. For now its unclear the direction Apple is headed on this or details of what this headset service could offer, however fingers are crossed and we can’t wait to find out the Apple’s next line of action. 3 key features rumor says the device possess is gaming, media consumption, and communication, while all this are already offered by the likes of Apple Arcade, Apple TV+ and Apple Music, and Apple’s FaceTime.
Currently, the subject of much discussion is the software or operating system the Apple’s headset will run on, rumors say it will run “rOS” others say “realityOS,” that has since been worked on since 2017. The existence of the operating system was recently confirmed when references to it were found in App Store upload logs and Apple open source code. Despite all the rumors and speculations revolving around Apple’s AR and VR and its plan to launch later this year, few enthusiasts believe that the launch will most likely be delayed until 2023.
