Just a day after Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that Apple will launch a mysterious new AR product in 2021, a DigiTimes report says that the company has moved into the second phase of development of its AR Glasses.

The report from DigiTimes is behind a paywall and will be released tomorrow so it is light on details right now. Previous reports have indicated that Apple is working on an AR headset along with AR Glasses. The former was reportedly on track to launch in 2022 followed by the AR Glass in 2023. However, it looks like Apple might have brought forward its plans to launch its first AR headset to 2021. Multiple references to Apple’s AR headset and Glasses have also been found in internal builds of iOS 13.

Another report from last year claimed that Apple’s AR/VR headset plan had changed significantly due to internal divisions. As per the report, the company was already a few years into the development of its AR/VR headset before Jony Ive raised issues with some of its fundamental aspects. The former design guru at Apple wanted the headset to be completely independent even if it meant compromising on power.

Our Take

At this point, it is very difficult to set any expectations about Apple’s AR headset. There have been a number of attempts at various AR/VR headset from tech giants like Google, Facebook, and HTC and while they have all met with a limited amount of success, they failed to gather consumer interest due to various hardware limitations.

Apple, however, could bypass these issues since it would not be relying on a third-party for the internal chips to power its AR/VR headset. This level of tight vertical integration could allow the company to resolve the battery life and performance issues which is usually a problem with most AR/VR headsets that have hit the market so far.