• A bevvy of details have been revealed about Apple’s upcoming VR/AR headset, including its name and price.
• Called the “Reality Pro” the device will contain novel technology that will allow you to control an operating system with only your eyes and hands like in a sci-fi movie.
• It will cost $3 000, double what Meta is asking for its top-of-the-range VR headset but will allow full-body avatars.

The long-awaited virtual reality / augmented reality headset from Apple finally has a name and a price point according to a host of new details revealed in an exhaustive report from Bloomberg insider Mark Gurman.

It will likely be called the “Reality Pro” and will allow users to enter a 3D version of the iPhone’s operating system which can be accessed through hand and eye tracking technology. This means that it will function without wands or controllers, setting it apart from its contemporaries.

This will work through cameras positioned externally and internally on the device which will analyse user hand and eye movements. Reportedly, users will be able to control the immersive operating system by simply looking at icons or buttons and pinching their thumb and index finger together to activate tasks a la Tom Cruise in Minority Report.

Gurman also indicates that the device will push for the same virtual meeting space applications currently cornered by Meta’s VR projects. But Apple wants to outshine competitors with novel features, which include the previously mentioned tracking capabilities and FaceTime-based video conferencing and virtual meeting rooms.

And, to further rub salt in the wound, Apple’s VR FaceTime zone will apparently launch with full-body avatars.

Meta’s Horizon Worlds VR meeting rooms has long been lambasted for faking full-body avatars in promotional materials as it is believed that the Facebook-owner just doesn’t know how to make their waist-up avatars have legs.

Further, Apple’s FaceTime avatars will be rendered realistically unlike Meta’s cartoonish avatars. At this point, Apple’s headset can only allow two people to communicate with full-body realistic avatars. As more people join the meeting room, they will be displayed as their custom Memoji.

Apart from VR, the headset is also primed for AR functionality which means that users will be able to see the real world in front of them with added digital content on top of the real world view. An Apple Watch-like gadget called “Digital Crown” will come with the headset and allow users to switch between AR and VR modes.

Imaging seeing a floating picture or diagram and then being able to access it with your fingers and eyes.

This is what Apple is looking to produce, according to Gurman, but it will cost an exorbitant amount of money at $3 000 or R51 840.30 at the current exchange rate.

This is double the price of Meta’s latest Quest Pro headset, which will retail for $1 499.99. Apple is apparently already working on a cheaper version as it expects the price tag will limit some of the device’s appeal.

Gurman says that Apple will reveal the device in Spring, which will mean that South Africans can expect to first see it in the Autumn months – April to May and perhaps even the beginning of June. This however can change if Apple shifts its schedule.

The super-expensive Reality Pro is a risky move from Apple. It will be embarking in an aggressively Meta-flavoured market. One that isn’t even providing dividends for Meta itself. Recently, Microsoft began cutting back on its own VR and AR aspirations, firing entire teams across these divisions as VR just hasn’t been the success it initially hoped.

We will have to ask the same thing here that we asked when Meta revealed its latest VR headset: Who is this for, really?

Apart from a super expensive gimmick, one that is admittedly cool, who really needs to have one of these headsets to work? To have meetings? What problem are these companies addressing with them? What are they making more convenient?

Until these questions are answered, we fear these headsets of the future will continue to be a very pricey pipe dream.

[Image – CC 0 Eugene Capon on Pexels]