In addition, analyst Brad Lynch has noted the headset could be entering production in August ahead of a release at the end of the year. This consensus on Apple hitting some walls with production has been contrasted by a DigiTimes report that states the AR Headset has completed production tests ahead of a release this year, which actually could line up with Ming-Chi Kuo's above detail. These production delays are likely to also affect the timeframe in which mass production was due to begin, which had been touted by Ming-Chi Kuo (via MacRumors) as being Q2 2022, ahead of the Q4 2022 announcement, which may not be the case today. Specifically, he noted the need for Apple to collaborate with governments on prescription lenses, which could pose challenges considering that Apple has had little experience in this area. These time lags can be common in the development of a new product, and Mark Gurman arguably predicted such would happen in a Power On newsletter from November 2021. The original plan looks to have been for the headset to be revealed at WWDC 2022, largely expected to be in June 2022 and then released some months later, but that looks to have hit some stumbling blocks due to overheating concerns, chiefly. Much like Project Cambria for instance, it is a device that has arrived with a lot of rumours thus far.Ī Bloomberg report has stated that Apple has experienced some snags within the development of the headset which has pushed back its potential announcement date towards the back-end of 2022 or into 2023, when the headset is expected to release.
As things stand, we have no official word or much concrete information on the release date for Apple's AR headset.