Apple Reportedly Targeting 2022 for Initial VR Headset Launch

Thanks to Bloomberg, Apple’s worst-kept secrets are its forays into face computers and electric automobiles. The business publication has the scoop on how mixed-reality R&D is coming along in Cupertino.

• Technology: N301, Apple’s VR prototype, is a self-contained headset with a high-res display and superfast processor.
• Strategy: Slated for a 2022 drop, the N301 will be quite niche and pricey. It won’t be a mass-market play, but an iterative step toward lightweight, full-feature AR specs (that project is codenamed N421).
• Certainty: N301 seeing the light of day isn’t 100%. Apple may avoid commercializing VR and hold out for the N421, which could be revealed to the world as early as 2023.

Checking in on Apple’s cross-valley rival

While Apple reportedly has 1,000 engineers working on the N301 and N421, Facebook is building a new campus for its AR/VR teams with room for ~4,000 employees.

FB has a vested interest and leadership position in mixed reality. Mark Zuckerberg has predicted breakthrough AR glasses could replace the phone and become the dominant tech platform later in the 2020s.