Apple will also put its reputation on the line with the mixed reality headset

“I am convinced that the metaverse will be the greatest industrial revolution of the 21st century and that within the next 5 years approximately 80% of people will have a virtual reality headset at home and in 10 years everyone will have their own headset”.

This is the prediction of Bertrand Nepveu, a Canadian who sold his company specializing in virtual and augmented reality devices, Vrvana, to Apple in 2017. According to Nepveu, one day we will use a viewer more than a smartphone and Apple is also convinced of this, which would by now be ready to bring its first mixed reality viewer to the market, a challenge different from those of the past.

Compared to iPod, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, for which there was already an interest in generating users, the creation of a viewer will represent a decisive change in strategy. In fact, until today, Apple’s goal has always been to create something better than what is already on the market and beat the competition. Virtual and augmented reality viewers, on the other hand, are still a long way from conquering the mass market and are still viewed with great skepticism by most consumers.

According to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, in Apple there would still be a lot of optimism. Some of the top managers in charge of launching this new viewer would even be convinced that in the future it will become the company’s signature product, replacing the iPhone, and that this first model, despite the decidedly high price – we are talking about over 3,000 dollars – will begin to prepare and entice users to this vision of the future.

Reality Prothis is the name that Apple’s viewer will probably have, will be one of its most advanced products, equipped with all the best of technology, but it will also have its limits: price, first of all, but also not particularly high autonomy (about a couple of hours), reduced usability in certain environmental conditions, will initially have little content and, probably, will not be exactly comfortable to wear.

Furthermore, according to Gurman, a real “killer app” will be missing right away. It’s hard to think that tight integration with other products, advanced FaceTime calling and immersive video and experiences will be enough to convince people to buy it. To avoid turning it into a flop, Apple will surely have to launch it as a preview of what’s to come in the future, which has never been done before, and will have to follow up the launch with rapid progress, also aided by external developers who will have the task of creating content. Apple will also have to try to bring the price down quickly to make it more attractive.

In short, for Apple this will certainly be a great challenge where there is much more at stake than the conquest of a new market segment. At stake is his reputation.