"A new era begins." With this message, Apple has announced what could be its most important event of the year. This is the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2023), which is held this Monday afternoon at its headquarters in Cupertino. The latest rumors suggest that the apple company will present mixed reality glasses to compete with other technology giants such as Microsoft, Meta or Oppo. The device, which is supposed to cost about $3,000, aims to change the way users work and are entertained.
If most years software updates take center stage at WWDC, this time hardware is expected to attract all eyes. That Apple is working on these glasses is an open secret that has been rumored for years. Mark Gurman, the quintessential informant of everything that is cooked in the Apple back room, has revealed some features of the device, such as the ability to display immersive video and an external display for connected Mac computers. Some leaks indicate that the glasses would work with a battery placed in a belt that would be connected to the viewfinder by a cable.
The big question is whether Apple could get this device to become a mass product. The apple company, according to Gurman, in January had not come up with a "revolutionary application" to justify a high price and boost its daily use. A "risky" decision according to the analyst, who considers it likely that the first model of these glasses "will be a failure in terms of unit sales."
Even so, he predicts that the company "could become the market leader in a matter of quarters. While it may be three or five years before a headset becomes a hit, it's hard to bet against the company's marketing, engineering, and sales prowess. If anyone can make this product category a success, it's Apple," he says.
In addition to the mixed reality glasses, it is rumored that the company will launch this afternoon other devices such as a new Mac Pro 2023 and a 15-inch MacBook Air. It is also expected to announce new versions of its operating systems: from iOS 17 to iPadOS 17 through watchOS 10 and macOS 14.
A few hours before the event, Apple reached an all-time high in market value of the last 17 months and was about to surpass its own barrier of 3,000 million dollars in the stock market. At the beginning of last year, it became the only company to reach this figure. Its last valuation was 2,890 million.
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