June 5, the day of the start of Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference is approaching. The occasion of the conference for developers will be the best, according to insiders, to finally see the first mixed reality viewer of the American giant. After years of postponements and unfulfilled expectations, Apple is ready to launch its innovative device, which however will not see an immediate marketing. This is stated by the Wall Street Journal, which reports new slowdowns in the production of the so-called Reality Pro, which will debut in less than a month but could arrive in Apple stores after the summer.
Although the Journal does not go into detail about the problems encountered by engineering teams, the continuation of the wait could depend on the need to balance the high technical capabilities of the device, according to the report, able to overcome any current competitor in mixed reality experiences, both virtual and augmented. To date, the only viewer to promise immersion in a sort of Metaverse, is the Meta Quest Pro, which has a price of about 1,200 euros. Apple's counterpart, according to rumors, should cost more than double, almost 3,000 euros, which will make them, at least in the first version, a niche product. The analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, an expert at Apple, has repeatedly spoken of a "Reality" model, cheaper and for the general public, which will arrive no earlier than 2024.
Returning to the production of the Pro variant, previously Mark Gurman of Bloomberg had mentioned the difficulty of integrating hardware and software and excessive overheating of the battery with prolonged use. This last detail would have led Apple to opt for the use of an external battery, instead of integrated into the dashboard of the viewer, so as to better dissipate heat. Analysts' estimate for Reality Pro shipments is around 300,000 units in all of 2023.