For a while now, Apple’s augmented reality viewer has become one of the big stars of the rumors of the technological world. At the beginning of November, for example, we had some data on what its technical specifications could be, and just a few days ago it was leaked that, unlike other systems of this type, Apple’s proposal could be a standalone device, that is to say , which would not need to be connected to a computer to function.
If this point is confirmed, that would justify another rumor that we have heard a lot lately, which is none other than the one that points out that its price will be very, very above what would be desired, with voices that they clearly place it above 2,000 euros. And is that if the viewer has part of the hardware of a PC, as with Apple’s M1 chip, such a high price would be reasonably justified. although it would continue to leave it out of the reach of the majority.
Be that as it may, one of the most anticipated data is, of course, the date, when it will hit the market. And today we have been able to read in Power On the weekly newsletter of Mark Gurman in Bloomberg, Apple could introduce its augmented reality viewer in 2022, but with a release date quite a long way from the announcement. And although he does not give concrete figures, he affirms that we could speak of a temporary difference that would rival the one that occurred between the announcement and the launch of the Apple Watch, which was presented on September 9, 2014, but did not go on sale until April 24, 2015.
Thus, if Gurman’s forecast is confirmed, Apple could introduce its augmented reality viewer in 2022 but, unless you do it very early in the year and the deadline is not much longer than the clock, still tWe would have to wait until 2023 until the first users can get hold of it. Such a long deadline is very striking, especially if we remember that last year the Cupertino people delayed the presentation of the iPhone 12 to October so that the launch would take place only a couple of weeks later.
Although some of us are somewhat skeptical of Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse, everything indicates that in the coming months we will see quite a few movements in this regard, with many positions taken by large technology companies, which will try to respond to Meta’s plans. In that context, it makes sense that Apple wants to make its “declaration of intent” as soon as possible, even if it is in the form of a presentation of a device that will still take a year, from then on, to reach the market.
However, Is all the “delay” between presentation and commercialization due to its development? It seems not. As the analyst also points out, the complexity of the viewfinder’s optical system, which could use interchangeable lenses, could cause the need both to search for partners in different demarcations, who are those that provide said lenses, and the possible need for homologation of the lenses. themselves, which can also take a long time.
Thus, among things and others, it will be rare that we see Apple’s augmented reality viewer before 2023. Although this is not necessarily bad, since if the announcement occurs, for example, at the Apple developers congress, the WWCD 2022, and at that time Apple already releases the necessary tools so that developers can start working on the new platform, for users to reach the market they should already have a good collection of software to take advantage of the device.
