Headset with outsourced technology: iPhone as the answer to Apple's cost problem
Apple's Vision Pro is enormously expensive – and even cheaper models could be around 2000 euros. The company is now considering using the iPhone.
Vision Pro user: Currently an expensive luxury.
(Image: Apple)
Apple is still not providing any information on how the Vision Pro is selling. However, CEO Tim Cook recently admitted in an interview that the mixed reality glasses, which are available from 4,000 euros, are "not a mass market product". At the same time, there were reports that production of the first AVP generation may have already been shut down. Although Apple is working on a new, cheaper version of the headset, which may be called Vision, this is likely to halve the current price at most. But what else could Apple do to counter cheap Meta Quest models? According to a new report, the iPhone could play a central role here.
New vision degraded to a display?
As Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman writes in his latest newsletter for paying subscribers on Sunday, Apple is indeed working on a cheaper Vision, including a second generation of the Vision Pro as a chip upgrade. At the same time, however, the company is also seriously considering outsourcing computing work to an iPhone.
This would primarily turn the Vision into a display with gesture and environment recognition – for immersive films, for example. The idea of using the iPhone as a control center together with other accessories is not new: when the Apple Watch was first released in 2015, a lot of work was also outsourced to the smartphone. Even today, the computer watch is not intended as a complete standalone device, despite the integrated LTE modem. The Vision Pro already works in two parts: The headset is powered by an external battery.
Videos by heise
Vision Group must deliver to Apple
Gurman compares Apple's idea with cheaper mixed reality glasses such as those from Xreal, which also use external computing technology. "The advantage for Apple is that it would reinforce the iPhone as the center of its product ecosystem and could be a much more popular option than the $3500 Vision Pro [in North America]."
The Bloomberg reporter does not specify how far such a project has progressed and whether it could actually be a product. However, it is also clear that Apple's "Vision Products Group" has to deliver. It is said to employ around 2000 people. John Ternus, Apple's head of hardware, who is also being touted as a possible successor to Tim Cook, is said to have recently taken the department under his direct wing.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
(bsc)
