Photo Illustration: 731; Photos: Apple; Bloomberg
Feature
The Sneaky Genius of Apple’s AirPods Empire
AR/VR headsets are a small market by Apple standards, but Tim Cook’s massive headphones division shows just how big the company can make a niche product.
Sometime next year, Tim Cook will appear before the Apple Inc. faithful and unveil the company’s next major computing platform, a headset that mixes virtual reality and augmented reality. Its code name is N301, though trademark filings suggest its real name may be the Apple Reality Pro. Those filings, and the early word, hint that the device’s components will probably blow away the VR headsets made by Facebook, Sony, and HTC. Apple’s version of VR seems likely to look better, run faster, and feature more immersive graphics. It’s also almost guaranteed to be a letdown, at least at first.