Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Reportedly Still Planning High-End and Low-End Versions of Second-Generation Headset in 2025

Let all the negative Nancys whine all they want.

Apple has the largest market cap in the world > $3 TRILLION and over $200 Billion in cash. I love that they are taking swings at cutting edge new products. If it fails, whatever; who cares... At least they’re playing offense instead of just rolling out predictable, boring iterations of the iPhone and their Mac line year after year. 😴

And to the haters - the good news is that no one is forcing you to buy any new Apple products! 😂
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: gusmula, zombitronic, MuppetGate and 4 others
genovelle said:
These sales numbers don’t add up. There are 525 stores worldwide, so 1 per day per store is about 191,000 units in the first year. Yet, the claim is that they expect sales of 7-10 million units in the first year. That’s 40-50 times the other number.
Click to expand...
They may be counting Apple Premium Resellers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: wilhoitm
mooger83 said:
Let all the negative Nancys whine all they want.

Apple has the largest market cap in the world > $3 TRILLION and over $200 Billion in cash. I love that they are taking swings at cutting edge new products. If it fails, whatever; who cares... At least they’re playing offense instead of just rolling out predictable, boring iterations of the iPhone and their Mac line year after year. 😴

And to the haters - the good news is that no one is forcing you to buy any new Apple products! 😂
Click to expand...
Please name all the "cutting edge new products" Apple has released in the past 5 years. Apple playing offense, surely you jest!
 
I
Mac Fly (film) said:
Sales eventually fizzles off like it did for the much cheaper Nintendo Wii. The idea of being cocooned in your own world is interesting to some people, but this product category for most of us will probably be more of a fad, like 3D TVs.

Apple should have focused instead on making an all-in-one living room TV (in 60" and 70") with high-end sound and a high-powered M-series chip, launching with 15 AAA quality games for everyone who wants to to play with their new great first-party controller—with a huge amount of effort put into this controller to show game devs how serious they are. The same games would be playable also on macOS with this controller. This sorts out Apple's living room strategy and Mac gaming problem. Apple should have left video streaming to the ten other streaming apps out there and put all of this money behind gaming—gaming sells the device—video streaming is available on any device, and would be on this device also.

AR is best served to augment existing experiences, such as smartphone camera apps (to recognise objects) and maps apps (for guided historical tours; to recognise objects and monuments) and for in-car HUD navigation.
Click to expand...
I agree with you and not. i'm not sure about being an actual TV from Apple given apples forced obsolescence of devices no way am i buying a new tv every 5 years.
 
Last edited:
  • Haha
Reactions: wilhoitm
MacRumors said:
The expensive price point is due to the high-end hardware that Apple is using, but the company reportedly wants to make a future version more affordable by using less pricey components such as lower-resolution lenses.
Click to expand...

So … it’s still a fresnel lens, probably in front of an LCD or LED display.

Just. Like. Every. Other. Consumer. VR. Headset.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JapanApple, arkitect and MacWiz_007
This is going to be a massive flop. In a market TIMING is everything and this isn't the time. That is my guess. Nobody cares about AR/VR when credit card debt is at an all time high, interest rates are climbing and the economy is fundamentally crumbling, while everyone is whistling in the dark with denial. People are making payments on PHONES. It is so bad Apple has to convince customers it is a good idea to connect savings to credit accounts (so they bolster balance sheet, you are enticed into offering voluntary collateral for either your debt or others).
 
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: gusmula, Mr_Ed, RottenAddict and 1 other person
MayaUser said:
what about a mid range?
Click to expand...
Exactly. I am not a fan for AR/VR and for obvious reasons. But they lost me with an high end and low end version. Apple offers only high end quality products (that changed when they turned into a giant recent years).

Apple and the words low end is such a bad marketing combo.
 
DrJR said:
This is going to be a massive flop. In a market TIMING is everything and this isn't the time. That is my guess. Nobody cares about AR/VR when credit card debt is at an all time high, interest rates are climbing and the economy is fundamentally crumbling, while everyone is whistling in the dark with denial. People are making payments on PHONES. It is so bad Apple has to convince customers it is a good idea to connect savings to credit accounts (so they bolster balance sheet, you are enticed into offering voluntary collateral for either your debt or others).
Click to expand...

Believe it or not there are a lot of rich people who are not effected. No matter what adversity the planet is currently facing we still must forge ahead!
 
  • Like
Reactions: flofixer
We should give it a chance. They may very well surprise us with something we didn't think we needed or wanted.
 
MayaUser said:
what about a mid range?
Click to expand...

The 'low-end" is likely going to be the mid-range. The 'low" end is highly relative to the $3K price point of the first model. Not 'low' relative to the average headset on the currently on the consumer market. Still probably talking significantly over $1K. That isn't particularly 'low'. It is still iPhone Pro Max or iPad Pro large screen like prices.
 
DarthDon said:
iu

Pro Ultra.
Click to expand...
By your command.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: DarthDon
For some reasons and for many months now, it’s hard for me to believe that it will be at 3K. I remember on the launch of the original iPad how surprised I was when it was announced at such a low price. I don’t expect to be cheap but I don’t think this can be that expensive. I would bet more around 1500 dollars.
 
MacRumors said:
​

Multiple rumors have indicated that Apple's first AR/VR headset coming later this year will be priced somewhere around $3,000 and will be positioned as a device for developers, content creators, and professionals. Apple expects to sell just one headset per day per retail store, and the company has told suppliers that it expects sales of seven to 10 million units during the first year of availability.
Click to expand...

0.7M to 1M seems far more believable. If there were 2,000 retail stores and sold one per day for 365 days that would be 730,000. 8,000 stores ... ~3M. Where the 10M number is coming from seems a bit of a huge stretch. Even the whole one headset per day.

Note: worldwide total VR headset last year

"... Worldwide shipments of VR headsets as well as augmented reality devices dropped more than 12% to 9.6 million in 2022. ..."
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/28/met...rt-after-vr-headset-sales-shrank-in-2022.html

Apple is going to double the shipments with a headset that is priced 3x-5x higher priced than the average current models. Hmmm, really?

7M smells like someone at Apple believes there is some "Fear of missing out" hook they are going to throw out in some reality distortion field to get the herd effect to drive the sales. Or blowing smoke at the suppliers to get them to buy into onerous contracts by painting a picture of the pot-o-gold at the end of the rainbow to chase.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: arkitect
A pre-emptive thank you to all those who buy the expensive first-generation version and help finance the vastly superior, more affordable second-generation version.
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: Halikaarn and arkitect
floral said:
I was on the verge of saying iSight when I remembered that was both the name for old apple cameras and features the now abandoned "i"...
Click to expand...
Haha. I did the same as I started my initial reply. At teatime, iSight was a pretty BA webcam.
640 x 480 pixel VGA resolution, baby!
Oh yeah - Firewire!
Takes me back...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back