Apple May Only Build Half of its Mixed-Reality Headsets by 2024

Inside sources at the Chinese manufacturer assembling Apple’s mixed-reality spatial computing headset VisionPro say they are preparing to make 400,000 units by June 2024.

Apple has asked two components manufacturers for enough parts to build 130,000 to 150,000 units.

Apple Dissatisfied With OLED Screens For VisionPro

Both forecasts fall short of the one million units Apple predicted it would have ready by next June. 

The bottleneck concerns the challenges of making two high-resolution screens Apple designed for each eye. To date, the iPhone maker said manufacturers’ defect rates were still too high.

It uses Korean vendors Samsung and LG, the latter of which makes Organic Light-Emitting Diode television screens. Meanwhile, Samsung was Apple’s largest supplier of iPhone 14 screens last year.

The screens are the headset’s most expensive parts that overlay Apple’s VisionOS user interface onto a user’s environment. The UI also will enable wearers to navigate with their eyes and voice, a critical feature of spatial computing. The latter is an umbrella term covering human-machine interactions.

In its product launch, Apple deliberately avoided allusions to VisionPro’s use in the metaverse. Still, advisors expect Apple’s high net-worth clientele in the US to drive sales of 20 million units in the next five years. 

Apple’s Walled Garden Could Cut Developers’ Revenue

But Apple’s internal VisionOS software will likely limit VisionPro’s potential as a platform-agnostic gateway into virtual worlds.

App developers‘ hopes of profiting from users’ metaverse activities will likely be limited by Apple’s current app rules that take a significant cut of in-app revenue. The company sparked a public outcry for stopping NFT purchases that do not conform to its policy. 

Last week, Apple gave the social media app Damus two weeks to remove a Bitcoin-tipping feature. While the app vendor claimed it amended the feature, the app was reportedly removed from the app store in a move slammed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Still, Apple’s ability to create user-friendly products could give it an advantage over other firms whose focus lies heavier on the metaverse’s underlying technology. 

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