Apple’s first VR headset will be released this year. It’s pretty high-end and expensive, rumored to cost around $3,000. Fortunately, Apple is now also working on a ‘budget-friendly’ version that should cost about the same as the iPhone.
Cheap Apple VR headset
The news is reported by the very knowledgeable Mark Gurman of Bloomberg. The cheaper headset (it may be called the Reality One) would resemble the high-end version Apple is launching this year, but includes affordable parts to keep costs down.
For example, chips that we know from the iPhone are used instead of the desktop chips that are used with the expensive headset. The internal screens also have a lower resolution than in the first AR / VR headset, which reportedly has two 4K screens. Furthermore, Apple would use cheap materials in the more budget-friendly version.
According to Gurman, the headset is priced similarly to the iPhone. That’s a bit vague, because Apple is selling more phones. The cheapest is the iPhone SE at 556 euros; the most expensive is the iPhone 14 Pro Max of 1476 euros. We think the price is closer to the most expensive iPhone. With this, Apple competes with Meta’s mixed reality headset (the Meta Quest Pro), which costs 1800 euros.
Release
The affordable Apple headset will probably take a while, because the development is in the early stages. There is no working prototype yet. Gurman expects Apple to introduce the mixed reality headset in 2024 or 2025. But first comes the launch of the high-end device, which will probably take place as early as this spring.
Both the expensive and the affordable headset are so-called mixed reality headsets. This is a device that uses both augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). AR adds a virtual layer to the real world, while VR completely immerses the user in a digital environment.
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