Apple’s long-awaited blended actuality headset seems more and more prone to launch this yr, however a brand new report suggests a troubled improvement course of that echoes a traditional Apple product with a blended fame.

The Monetary Instances (opens in new tab) means that Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner has determined to “press forward with a debut this yr” for a mixed-reality headset, which apparently resembles a pair of light-weight ski goggles, and can mix each AR and VR experiences. 

In making this resolution, nevertheless, Cook dinner has apparently “overruled the early objections from Apple’s designers to attend for the tech to meet up with their imaginative and prescient”. Provided that the Apple VR headset has now apparently been seven years within the making and is “anticipated to value round $3,000”, it is onerous to not hear this hypothesis and consider the Apple Newton.

Simply over 30 years in the past, in Could 1992, Apple introduced a fairly ground-breaking product referred to as the Newton MessagePad, which ushered in a brand new cellular computing platform referred to as the PDA (or Private Digital Assistant). The Newton was additionally in improvement for six years, slowed down by inner disputes, and was prohibitively costly at launch (costing $900, or about $1,860 / £1,540 / AU$2,400 at right now’s costs).

After all, we now have no means of figuring out whether or not or not the fortunes of Apple’s headset – rumored to be referred to as the Apple Actuality Professional – might finally observe the identical path because the Newton, which was discontinued in 1997. Apple will definitely do every thing to make sure it will not, together with launching “a advertising and marketing blitz for the brand new product” (based on the Monetary Instances). 

However the similarities do not finish there – the FT additionally says that Tim Cook dinner is betting on the headset “to safe his legacy”, as it is the “first new computing platform to have been developed totally underneath his management”.

Equally, again within the late 1980s, Apple CEO John Sculley – whose boardroom tussle with Steve Jobs noticed the latter acrimoniously depart the corporate – had steadied Apple and made it worthwhile once more similarly to Tim Cook dinner, however was on the lookout for an modern launch that may outline the way forward for computing.

Just like the Newton, Apple’s blended actuality headset might be constructed round modern new enter methods, if the rumors are right. The Newton’s particular expertise was its handwriting recognition software program, which finally laid the groundwork for the iPhone. And based on Bloomberg, house owners of Apple’s AR/VR gadget will work together with it utilizing their arms and eyes.

However initially, it appears that evidently the headset, which we’re anticipating to be unveiled at WWDC 2023 in June, will strictly be for well-heeled early adopters. In accordance with the FT, Apple is “solely anticipating to promote round one million items of its headset in its first 12 months”, which is much less the the equal gross sales of the iPhone or Apple Watch throughout their debut yr.

Evaluation: a actuality verify for Apple’s headset

Apple’s mixed-reality headset could finally show to be extra of an iPhone-sized success than a cursed Apple Newton, however these experiences of a troubled improvement course of solely add to the similarities between the units.

The Monetary Instances factors out that the primary variations of recent Apple merchandise aren’t sometimes massive sellers, and that was significantly the case for the unique Apple iPhone and Apple iPod. The latter offered lower than 5 million items in complete, which places predictions of first-year gross sales of 1 million items for Apple’s AR/VR headset throughout its first yr into perspective.

However none of Apple’s earlier game-changers this century – the iPhone, Apple Watch, Airpods and iPod – have had a price ticket anyplace close to as excessive because the rumored $3,000 for Apple’s incoming headset. If that’s the worth, or near it, then it is going to seemingly be a first-gen product whose final function is to plant a flag for a genuinely mass-market gadget. 

When the Newton lastly arrived in 1993 – over a yr on from its first public demo – it was technologically spectacular, however its foremost options, like handwriting recognition, did not work nicely sufficient out of the field. Therefore its well-known look in The Simpsons (opens in new tab), when Dolph wrote a word on the Newton to “Beat up Martin’, which it duly translated to ‘Eat up Martha’.

Clearly, Apple’s incoming headset might want to do a greater job of residing as much as the appreciable hype that is constructed over the previous few years. We could finally get two extra Apple AR/VR headsets in 2025, based on revered analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, together with a much-needed cheaper mannequin. And people might ultimately result in the Apple Glasses, which the FT says might “take a number of extra years” based on “most within the tech trade”. 

However the debut gadget for Apple’s xrOS prolonged actuality platform might want to keep away from the Newton’s pitfalls if it may be Apple’s subsequent massive hit.