Analyst: Apple will announce a mixed reality headset in the next several months (but not at WWDC)

Sometime in the next several months, the company is poised to announce a mixed reality headset, its first major new device since 2015, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. And he’s usually accurate in his predictions.

Gurman doesn’t think it will be unveiled at June’s virtual Worldwide Developer Conference June 7-11 as “Apple won’t want to make such a critical announcement at an online event” and “it wants employees, the media, its partners and developers in the room.”

Regarding the rumored “Apple Glasses,” such a device will arrive this year or 2022, depending on which rumor you believe. The Sellers Research Group (that’s me) agrees with Gurman and thinks Apple will at least preview it before the end of the year. 

It will be a head-mounted display. Or may have a design like “normal” glasses. Or it may be eventually be available in both form factors. The Apple Glasses may or may not have to be tethered to an iPhone to work. Other rumors say that Apple Glasses could have a custom-build Apple chip and a dedicated operating system dubbed “rOS” for “reality operating system.”