Apple’s top 100 executives got a taste of the company’s upcoming mixed reality headset during a demo last week at the Steve Jobs Theater. It is an auditorium in Apple Park which is used in particular as a place for keynotes.
According to Mark Gurman Bloomberg, this large gathering was a key step before the public announcement of the helmet combining augmented reality and virtual reality. If all goes as planned, Apple will announce the new product in June at WWDC.
The appointment at the Steve Jobs Theater was intended to rally key members of Apple staff around the company’s next major platform. Several executives have been able to preview the headset since 2018, but those demos were low-key looks at the progress of the project rather than showcases of the full device. This concerned a few people moreover. Here, we are talking about 100 frames.
The demonstration notably allowed certain executives to realize that this product will not be for everyone and the story could be similar to that of the Apple Watch. The watch had a few initial bumps, but things have improved over the years. For the headphones, there are several factors: high price (around 3,000 dollars), no application at launch which will really change the game to make you want to get the product, external battery required with change after a few hours , a design that doesn’t appeal to everyone (some executives found the headset uncomfortable) and little entertainment at launch.
Executives expect consumer interest to increase as later iterations of the headset launch at lower prices in the future.
