Apple has moved its long-awaited augmented reality (AR) headset from prototype to trial production finally. This AR headset that’s being built by Apple with lenses from Foxconn is one of the important milestones for the tech giant.
The AR headset is going to come with semi-transparent glasses and Apple is developing the lenses at the Foxconn factory in Chengdu (Southwestern China) where Apple’s iPad production is also centered, MacRumours reported quoting The Information.
The development of any new device Apple makes happens in phases. It starts with phases of prototyping in California and China over which dozens of units are created along with the parts. In May this year, the lenses for the AR headset went into the engineering validation test (EVT) phase where Apple moves to making thousands of units, a person familiar with the process explained. By this point, Apple usually had the design locked down and begins testing the suitability of moving to the mass production phase.
Sources say that the lenses, and thus the headset, are at least two years away from entering the mass production phase and if all goes as planned, we should be seeing the headsets launch in 2022.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman had reported that Apple’s AR and VR projects have been hampered by “internal divisions” on the matter of Apple emphasising on graphics and processing power in a design what connects wirelessly to a nearby hub makes sense or should the headset be more personal with lesser capabilities but something that can be contained entirely within the headset.
Apple has multiple AR and VR projects in the works besides just this one headset (which is code named N301. There are a pair of sleeker AR glasses, codenamed N421, that might be launched in 2023.
