Apple on June 5th is widely expected to unveil its first mixed-reality headset. It is expected to cost $3,000 which will put it out of reach for all but the most enthusiastic early adopters.
TD Cowen analyst Krish Sankar weighed in Friday with a research note laying out his forecast for sales, and pointing out some potential issues for the new Apple device.
Sankar thinks the first device will be in a related category called XR, for “extended reality,” which blends elements of the real world with virtual objects and experiences. He expects the first device to be priced at $3,000, and to initially appeal to early adopters and software developers. Sankar’s forecast is for sales in 2023 of between 500,000 and 1 million devices. If he’s right, that would imply a boost of well under 1% to annual revenue.
The Cowen analyst thinks Apple will follow up next year with a VR headset, which presumably would compete with market leader Meta Platform’s Quest headsets. He expects that device to be priced at $2,000, which is about twice the price of Meta’s high end Meta Quest Pro.
MacDailyNews Take: 500,000 is quite low. We bet Apple does significantly better than that, even to a limited audience. One million+ in unit sales for 2023 is doable.
There are uses and applications for a high-quality AR/VR headset that’s ensconced in the rich Apple ecosystem (macOS, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS) that nobody, including Apple employees, have yet imagined. — MacDailyNews, May 23, 2023
Earlier this month, our Little birdie told us that one selling point of Apple’s mixed-reality headset that has been imagined will be the ability to attend live and recorded concerts remotely. Buy a ticket, for significantly less than in-person, and the headset will “as much as possible, be like being there – with extras like changing seat positions.” Apple’s launch last week of new concert discovery and set lists features on Apple Maps and Apple Music lays part of the foundation.
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The post You’re probably not going to buy Apple’s mixed-reality headset appeared first on MacDailyNews.
