Apple’s AR/VR headset will cost more than a Mac, but it sounds spectacular

We've been tracking Apple AR/VR headset rumours for months now, including recent reports that it'll be smarter and lighter than the Meta Quest Pro. But according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, one thing it won't be is cheaper. The Apple AR/VR headset, which may be called Reality Pro or Reality One, will cost more than a Mac.

There's a reason for that. It's packed with seriously expensive tech, making it more powerful than many Macs too.

Apple AR/VR headset: what it'll cost and why

According to Gurman and many other reports, the first Apple AR/VR headset will be considerably more premium than the one most of us will end up buying. The price is going to be somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000, and likely to be slightly more in other territories because of the strong dollar. 

But while there's the usual hefty Apple profit margin here, the spec is still impressive. The headset will have a Mac-equivalent M2 chip, just like the current MacBook Pro and the iPad Pro, and Gurman says it'll sport more than 10 cameras inside and outside plus "the highest resolution displays ever featured in a mass-market headset".

Gurman adds that the Reality OS will include fancy versions of apps such as Messages, FaceTime and Maps, and the first version of the OS is now almost complete. Apple is also working on a 3D video service, and may even be working on a VR world that's in the same vein as Meta's Horizon Worlds but not rubbish. Apparently "metaverse' is a word Apple's marketing people will never use.

I'm still excited about Apple's headset, but I'm also resigned to the fact that I won't own one: I've already got two VR headsets gathering dust in my flat and they cost considerably less than Apple's one. This is one for the developers and early adopters; the real killer headset is likely to be the more affordable second one, by which time there will be much more AR/VR content available too.