The ‘extended reality’ operating system will allegedly be used to power three new mixed-reality headsets from Apple.
It looks like we might not have to wait much longer to see Apple’s first foray into virtual reality. There are multiple headsets in production, which will run on the newly-christened ‘xrOS’, according to a new article on Bloomberg from well-known Apple reporter Mark Gurman.
xrOS is claimed to replace the previous ‘realityOS’ (or just ‘rOS’), which was originally reported about along with Apple’s plans for an augmented reality headset way back in 2017. Back then, we only expected an AR wearable from the fruity tech giant, but Gurman’s latest report suggests that we’re actually going to see three different headsets: codenamed the ‘N301’, ‘N602’, and ‘N421’.
The first two are purported to be true mixed reality headsets, which will incorporate both AR and VR features. This isn’t really new technology – mixed reality has been around for a while, as seen in products such as Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 – but Apple is doing the Apple thing and giving it a new name to claim originality. The ‘xr’ part of xrOS stands for ‘extended reality‘, which is… just mixed reality, as far as we can tell.
The N421 headset is suspected to be a less complex AR-only product, more similar to the ill-fated Google Glass. The N301 is expected to launch first, with Gurman describing it as being at an ‘advanced’ stage in the development process, with a potential release as early as next year.
