Apple to reportedly debut its first mainstream AR glasses with sleek design in 2022

Apple’s AR glasses have been on speculations for years now, with various patents dating back to 2015. But things got exciting when Apple announced ARKit at WWDC back in 2017, making it clear that the Cupertino giant is serious about the AR business. 

According to the analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the first iteration of Apple’s AR headset could arrive in 2022 at the earliest. This falls in line with the reports from Taiwanese site DigiTimes and The Information, which said that Apple’s glass could launch in 2022 as suppliers work to ramp up development. 

The rumours circulating on the Internet indicates that Apple’s first headset will look similar to Facebook’s Oculus Quest but with few changes in the design department. Furthermore, the reports from Bloomberg said that Apple’s headset is expected to offer a combination of both AR and VR experience and would be designed for gaming, entertainment, and communication. 

Apple AR headsets are expected to feature a high-res display and likely to be reliant on iPhone for processing power considering it’s sleek built. On the software front, the headsets are expected to be shipped with realityOS (rOS). 

Apple acquires NextVR!

On the other hand, Apple has confirmed the acquisition of VR events startup NextVR. Based out of California, NextVR allows the fully immersive content to be streamed with pristine quality using current home and mobile Internet connections. While 9to5Mac reports acquisition value at $100 million, Apple didn’t disclose any figures as such. 

In a way of confirming NextVR website has disappeared and there is a message saying, “We’re heading in a new direction” and “thanked its partners and fans around the world for the role you played in building this awesome platform for sports, music and entertainment experiences in Virtual Reality.”

The VR company provided VR experiences for viewing live events with headsets from Oculus, HTC, PlayStation, Microsoft, and Lenovo headsets. Also, the startup tied-up with news organisation CNN and sports leagues like NASCAR and NBA to broadcast special events and games in VR. 

Launched in 2009 by David Cole, and DJ Roller, NextVR has more than 26 patents granted or pending for the capture, compression, transmission, and display of virtual reality content.

Main image credits: Martin Hajek/iDropnews

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