Apple’smixed - realism headset , arguably its most extremely anticipated newfangled product launch , has been hit by yet another time lag . The respected industry psychoanalyst Ming - Chi Kuo predicted Sunday that it may have been pushed back from the second quarter of 2023 to the second one-half of that year .
In a Twitter thread largely focus on the impact of the delay on provider firm , Kuo cite unspecified “ software issues ” as the reason for the variety . One effect of this , he says , is that fewer than 500,000 whole will be ship in 2023 , down from the old idea of between 800,000 and 1.2 million .
Kuo take note , however , that it “ still needs to be determine ” whether theannouncementof the headset will move . It was retrieve that if Apple was to make an announcement about the new product in Januaryit would do so at a especial event , the first January event since Apple foretell the iPad in January 2010 .
It is still possible that Apple could still hold an AR event in January 2023 , although this would mean an even longer gap between announcement and shipping – and Apple has beenburned beforewhen announcing products too too soon . However , it also has unveiled major ware such as the iPhone and Apple Watch months before shipping to avoid major leaks and get developers on board . it also could denote the young platform at WWDC in June .
The equipment , referred to as a “ mixed - reality ” headset because it ’s understood to aggregate elements of virtual and augmented realism , has been a steady germ of both exciting rumors and disappointing delays since it was first consider well over a decade ago . ( Back in 2008 Applefiled a patentfor a headset with a slot for an iPhone or iPod , which gives a sense of how much the conception has evolved . ) At one level it was confidently predicted that an Apple headset wouldlaunch by 2020 , so readers would be forgive for feeling skeptical about the 2023 possibility . Of course , it ’s debatable whether it ’s fair to call these delays since Apple has never confirmed a launch agenda .
Apple ’s reality design have been in the spot recently , with reputation that the company has add up up with an entirely young operating system shout xrOS – likely forming the base of an only newecosystem of intersection – for the equipment . Along with the headset , pundits await Apple to launch a smart gang , as part of a larger“metaverse”of mixed - realism products .