Apple Gearing Up ‘Mixed Reality’ Headset, rOS: Reports

Apple’s ‘Next Big Thing’ could hit store shelves in 2023.

Apple is closer than ever to releasing a “mixed reality” headset, according to a new report.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, citing the always-popular anonymous sources, says executives offered Apple’s board a sneak preview of the headset. Apple is also reportedly hard at work on “rOS,” a specialized operating system (OS) for the hardware.

Apple could release the device and OS in 2023, barring any unforeseen development or production complications. “Mixed reality” means the headset can shift between augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) modes; according to Gurman, Apple is also working on a pair of lightweight AR eyeglasses for release at some future point.

Apple has been preparing its developer community for AR and VR for quite some time. Way back at WWDC 2019, the company rolled out RealityKit, its AR tooling platform that focuses on motion capture and people occlusion (i.e., evaluating the relative positions of virtual objects and actual people). It also pushed out ARKit, which allows developers to create AR experiences for their iPhones and iPads, and could be easily tweaked for AR glasses of some kind.