WWDC preview: Apple is gearing up for something it hasn’t done in 8 years

Apple has been rumored for years to be developing a headset, and gadget aficionados likely will get their first glimpse of it Monday, when Apple executives give their keynote address to kick off the annual WWDC confab. The company would be wading into a headset market that has failed to gain meaningful user traction, even as market leader Meta Platforms Inc.
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changed its name in late 2021 to convey more of a focus on virtual worlds.

Mixed-reality headsets combine virtual reality, which is immersive, and augmented reality, which lets people engage virtually with real-life surroundings. Apple’s device, thought to be named Reality Pro, could emphasize immersive video, gaming and productivity applications, and feature hand- and eye-tracking technology so that users won’t need dedicated controllers, Bloomberg News reported earlier this year.

Expect Apple to take a different approach on pricing compared with Meta, which has multiple offerings and commanded nearly half of the market for augmented- and virtual-reality headsets in the first quarter, according to third-party data from IDC. While Meta has focused lately on making its devices more affordable to increase their mass-market appeal, Apple’s forthcoming headset could land with an eye-popping price tag of about $3,000.

For contrast, the Meta Quest Pro starts at $999.99, and the company has cheaper offerings as well, including its recently teased Meta Quest 3, which will begin at $499.99 while the price of the Quest 2 goes down to $299.99.

Apple readies launch of $3,000 headset: Will it succeed where others have failed?

Analysts note that Apple has leveraged its brand reputation in the past to take lackluster product categories pioneered by others and turn them into virtual essentials for consumers. The Apple Watch was once seen as geeky and Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng wrote recently that its original iteration was termed by some to be a “flop.” Apple has since turned the product mainstream.

“In our view, the eventual success of the Apple Watch can serve as a corollary to a potential product lifecycle of the Apple VR/AR headset: the introduction of a new product in an emerging category with existing competitors with a potential slow start where ongoing new product innovation can drive installed base penetration over time,” he wrote in a note to clients.

Read: Apple CEO Tim Cook explains why consumers would want a mixed-reality headset

The thinking is that the company will start with a pricey model geared at hardcore Apple loyalists before it eventually rolls out less expensive iterations in future years that could gain steam more broadly.

Accordingly, investors should expect paltry sales early on, with BofA Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan predicting that the company could sell perhaps 200,000 units of the device in 2023.

Still, he agreed that the category could become more of a hit for Apple down the line. “[I]t’s important to recognize that the headset version three years from now will be cheaper, faster and have many more use cases (gaming, entertainment, augmented productivity, fitness, wellness, education, training, healthcare, shopping, e-commerce, social media, etc.),” Mohan wrote, and those applications would all bring opportunities for Apple to rack up software revenue at high margins.

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What else to watch for

Macs: Apple could debut “several” new Macs, Bloomberg News reporter Mark Gurman tweeted earlier this week. In an article, he said that the company was testing two high-end Macs and accompanying processors ahead of the event.

Software upgrades: WWDC is usually more of a software event than a hardware event, and while new operating systems for the iPhone and other devices could feature in a more secondary role compared with the headset launch, Apple should still have some feature improvements on the software side of things. Bloomberg News has reported that Apple is planning to make it so locked iPhones turn into smart displays with things like calendar events and weather. Other possible upgrades in iOS 17 include a journaling app and health features for mood tracking.

A long afternoon: Apple’s keynote kicks off at 1 p.m. Eastern, and given the prospect of new hardware announcements alongside the typical software updates, Bloomberg’s Gurman tweeted that this year’s WWDC presentation could “be one of Apple’s longest ever and easily exceed two hours.”