“It’s the first Apple product you look through, not at,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said while introducing the Apple Vision Pro, the company’s new virtual reality headset that will allow users to overlay an augmented experience over the real world.
Apple announced the VR headset at its annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in Cupertino, California, this afternoon, where it also revealed developments for many of its existing products and software.
The Apple Vision Pro is a wearable headset that creates an augmented reality experience with everything from work meetings and meditation to gaming and movies. Apple says it will be available in early 2024, with prices starting at $3,499 U.S., equivalent to about $4,700 Cdn.
While wearing the headset, users can browse by looking or making hand gestures, which Alan Dye, vice president of human interface design at Apple, describes as “as subtle and natural as possible.”
The Vision Pro marks the first major product launch for Apple since the Apple Watch in 2015. But it’s unclear how large the demand is for the headset. A Bloomberg analysis estimates that the product will generate the company $1.5 billion U.S. ($2 billion Cdn) in sales, or 0.5 per cent of the company’s revenue base.
The anticipation that Apple’s goggles are going to sell for several thousand dollars already has dampened expectations for the product.
Although he expects Apple’s goggles to boast “jaw dropping” technology, Dan Ives, analyst at the American firm Wedbush Securities, expects the company to sell just 150,000 units during the device’s first year on the market — a mere speck in the company’s portfolio.
By comparison, Apple sells more than 200 million of its marquee iPhones a year. But the iPhone wasn’t an immediate sensation, with sales of fewer than 12 million units in its first full year on the market.
New MacBook Air, iOS 17
Other new products introduced at the WWDC include a 15-inch MacBook Air, the latest in Apple’s popular laptop line that boasts a larger screen, a new six-speaker sound system and an advertised 18 hours of battery life while still maintaining a low weight at 1.49 kilograms. It will be available for $1,749 starting next Tuesday, June 13, 2023.
Apple also shared its new M2 Ultra processing chip, a 24-core processor which Apple says has both increased speed and memory compared to its predecessor, the M1 Ultra.
Company executives also shared key software updates. Notably, they shared key features in the upcoming iOS 17, which Apple says will improve its autocorrect, and introduce a new standby mode that can display key information while charging the iPhone.
Apple did not make any major announcements about generative AI products similar to ChatGPT or Google’s Bard search engine, but it quietly imbued several smaller features with AI, like live transcriptions of voice mails.
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