This week, Apple will be mostly concentrating on its 'Far Out' event[1], which is likely to see the new debut of the iPhone 14 family -- iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max -- as well as new AirPods and a new Apple Watch.
That's plenty to keep the enthusiasts happy. But already there is speculation about Apple's next big thing. Right now, the assumption is that it's almost certainly some kind of virtual reality or augmented reality headset.
Apple could be working on not one, but three different models, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman[2].
The first of those, code-named N301 and likely to be called Apple Reality Pro, could launch as soon as next year. This could be followed by a lower-cost N602 model, and by N421, which is expected to be a set of augmented reality glasses.
Big tech companies seem to have decided that AR and VR headsets are going to be the next major computing device for consumers and businesses.
Tech companies -- either publicly in the case of Facebook or more discreetly in the case of Apple -- been pouring billions into these projects over the last few years.
For big tech the benefits are obvious: whichever brand wins out will be able to mediate our relationship with the visual world around us. The potential for advertising (not to mention invasion of privacy) is almost endless.
However, at least until now, big tech's enthusiasm for AR and VR has not been met with matching interest from users. Shipments of headsets still remain stubbornly low compared to smartphones or even PCs.
While the worldwide market for AR and VR headsets grew 92.1% year-over-year in