Apple on Monday unveiled a costly augmented-reality (AR) headset called the Vision Pro to make its entry into a market dominated by Facebook-owned Meta.
The Vision Pro is priced at $3,499 (around Rs 3 lakh) which is more than three times the price of Meta’s costliest headset.
At its Annual Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple emphasized the novelty of the headset’s augmented reality features as well as the sports and entertainment viewing it would offer. The device will use a new chip called R1 that will process information from its sensors in less time than the blink of an eye, the company claims.
The headset will have its own operating system, visionOS, and a dedicated App Store. The product is scheduled to first hit the US market early next year after which it will also be launched in other regions.
The Vision Pro, which has been in the pipeline for the last 7 years, is envisaged to be CEO Tim Cook’s signature addition to the Apple product lineup much like the iPhone. However, market analysts are of the view that there is no mass market for the product as yet and there is no certainty that it would be an immediate success.
Apple also introduced a 15-inch MacBook Air, a powerful chip called M2 Ultra and improvements to its iOS software at the company’s annual conference in California.
