Vratislav Holub For a long time there has been talk about the arrival of an AR/VR headset from Apple. The Cupertino giant is said to have been working on it for years and is said to be a professional device with a number of extensive options. Of course, the price tag will also correspond to this. Although nothing is definitive yet, various sources and leaks mention that it should be in the range of $2 to $3. In conversion, the headset will cost approximately 46 to almost 70 thousand crowns. This is an additional amount for the US market. Accordingly, it can be assumed that it will be slightly higher in our country due to taxes and other fees.
It could be interest you
Flying around the world with Apple But Apple believes in the product. At least that's according to the available leaks and speculations, which mention passionate development and attention to detail. Let's leave aside what the headset (doesn't) offer for now. You can read about potential options and specifications in the article attached above. But this time we will focus on something different. The question is whether the product will be popular at all and whether it can break through. When we look at the other players in this market, it doesn't look very happy.
Popularity of AR games
As we indicated above, this segment is still not quite the best. This can be seen perfectly in the so-called AR games. They experienced their greatest fame with the arrival of the then extremely popular game Pokémon GO, which was able to make excellent use of the possibilities of augmented reality and literally sent hordes of players out. After all, people have to walk around the city/nature and search and hunt pokemon. As soon as they find one in their vicinity, all they have to do is point the camera at the space, when the just-mentioned augmented reality comes into play. The given element is projected into the real world through the display screen, in this case a specific pokemon that you just have to catch. But the popularity gradually declined and only "a few" fans remained from the initial enthusiasm.
Others tried to take advantage of the huge boom in AR games, but they all ended up practically the same. The game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite was also popular, which worked in practically the same way, only relying on the environment from the popular Harry Potter series. It didn't take long and the game was canceled completely. You can no longer find it in the App Store today. Unfortunately, Witcher: Monster Slayer was not a success either. This title was released in July 2021 and enjoyed huge popularity from the beginning. Fans of The Witcher were downright excited and enjoyed being able to project this world into their own. Now, however, the Polish studio CD Project announces its complete termination. The project is financially unsustainable. Although AR games look great at first glance, in the long run, success eludes them.
The potential of Apple's AR/VR headset
Therefore, considerable question marks hang over the eventual popularity of the Apple AR/VR headset. In general, this segment has not yet reached the point where the public would be so interested in it. On the contrary, it is more popular in specific circles, especially among players, possibly also for study purposes. In addition, there is another difference. Players like headsets such as Oculus Quest 2 (for around 12 crowns), Valve Index (for around 26 crowns) or Playstation VR (for around 10 crowns). While the first Quest 2 model can work independently, you need a sufficiently powerful computer for the Valve Index, and a Playstation game console for the PS VR. Even so, they are significantly cheaper than the expected model from Apple. Do you have confidence in the AR/VR headset from the workshop of the Cupertino giant?
Apple AR/VR headset concept
