Imaginative and prescient Professional 2 is ready for late 2026 and Apple is struggling to launch a less expensive headset first, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reviews.
Gurman has a robust monitor document of reporting on Apple’s future plans. He reliably reported many particulars of Imaginative and prescient Professional earlier than it was formally revealed and even acknowledged to exist by Apple.
In his newest e-newsletter, Gurman writes that Apple’s roadmap “doesn’t presently name for a second-generation mannequin till the tip of 2026, although the corporate is attempting to determine a technique to deliver a less expensive model to market earlier than then”. However concerning that cheaper model, he claims Apple is “nonetheless flummoxed by how precisely to deliver down the associated fee”.
Cheaper Apple Imaginative and prescient May Use iPhone Chip And Lack EyeSight
Apple’s in-development extra inexpensive Imaginative and prescient headset might use an A-series chipset and lack EyeSight.
Provide chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo first reported that Apple was engaged on a less expensive headset a full yr earlier than Imaginative and prescient Professional was even revealed, with Kuo on the time saying Apple aimed to launch it in 2025.
Final yr Gurman too reported on the existence of this cheaper headset, saying it should characteristic an A-series chipset (utilized in iPhones) as a substitute of an M-series chipset and “seemingly” drop the EyeSight entrance show. The A17 Professional within the iPhone 15 Professional fashions has a GPU with 6 cores that is roughly 60% as highly effective because the M2’s GPU, so it appears affordable an A18 Professional or A19 Professional would possibly shut the hole.
In that very same report, Gurman stated Apple “mentioned costs starting from $1500 to $2500”. That he now says Apple is “flummoxed” by the best way to deliver the value down suggests both these downgrades will not be enough to satisfy that value vary, or Apple merely would not wish to sacrifice options like EyeSight in any headset.
Meta Quest 3 & Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional Manufacturing Prices Estimated
A provide chain evaluation agency estimated the prices of every part in Meta Quest 3 and Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional.
The biggest value by far in Imaginative and prescient Professional is its near-4K micro-OLED shows from Sony. Estimates place the associated fee to Apple at $350 every, which means $700 per headset. Utilizing small LCD shows would considerably cut back value, however would end in inferior distinction and necessitate both considerably diminished decision or a a lot bulkier design. It is extraordinarily unlikely Apple would take this path. The actual path to a less expensive Imaginative and prescient headset thus depends on the value of excessive decision micro-OLED shows falling.
Micro-OLED are manufactured straight onto silicon wafers with a course of very completely different to common OLED. Whereas the expertise itself is not new, it was primarily solely utilized in low quantity merchandise like high-end digital camera viewfinders and in some industrial sensible glasses, and never at near-4K resolutions. Mass manufacturing of micro-OLED of this decision solely simply got here on-line this yr. Sony is reportedly Apple’s sole provider, however can solely produce sufficient for 500,000 headsets this yr.
Apple Testing New Micro-OLED Suppliers For Imaginative and prescient Headsets
Apple is reportedly testing new OLED microdisplay suppliers to extend the manufacturing scale of future Imaginative and prescient headsets.
Final yr The Data’s Wayne Ma reported that Apple was testing micro-OLED microdisplays from two further suppliers, each Chinese language, BOE and SeeYa Expertise. If the samples meet Apple’s requirements, Ma wrote, shows from these firms might be utilized in each Imaginative and prescient Professional 2 and the cheaper headset.
Apple bringing in new suppliers might allow a lot bigger manufacturing volumes than the present Imaginative and prescient Professional, and thus extra inexpensive Imaginative and prescient headset costs. However micro-OLED shows are extraordinarily troublesome to fabricate at excessive yield, so it is nonetheless unclear precisely which firms can handle to produce them at scale whereas assembly the standard requirements firms like Apple count on. Difficulties with BOE and SeeYa samples be contributing to Apple’s wrestle to deliver a extra inexpensive Imaginative and prescient headset to market.
