William Gallagher
Based on how current popular AR headsets are priced, Trendforce analysts predict that the forthcoming Apple AR device will come with a monthly subscription.
Apple's first AR headset has consistently been predicted to cost $1,000, $2,000, or $3,000. For the first time, though, Trendforce analysts are now speculating that it will require an additional monthly subscription.
According to Trendforce, currently the "commercial market is dominated" by the HoloLens 2. The company expects that, "strong shipments" of Oculus and Microsoft devices "will likely force Apple to release relevant products to join the competition this year."
"However... considering hardware performance requirements and gross profit margins, Apple will likely target the commercial market and adopt the same pricing strategy as HoloLens," continues the report.
Trendforce expects "hardware priced in the thousands of dollars." It also predicts "a monthly subscription-based software solution" on top of that.
Currently, the HoloLens 2 hardware is sold by Microsoft as a one-time purchase. At times other firms are either leasing it, or purchasing on an installment plan.
There are subscriptions involving HoloLens 2, but they appear to be solely for third-party apps. Since any AR or VR headset will require apps, Trendforce appears to be assuming Apple itself will follow third-party HoloLens 2 developers in charging an app subscription.
HoloLens 2 is marketed at industry and commercial users. Although Apple is known more for consumer devices, other previous rumors have said its first AR/VR headset will be aimed at businesses.
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13 Comments
When these finally get released, I may actually be more excited to see how many of these so-called experts ended up being wrong than I will be for the headset itself.
Since xserve, Apple had not released a single hardware product that is focusing on commercial market, I highly doubt if they will do it now.
I've been considering a Quest for some time, but have been put off by the apparent need for an FB account. I don't know anything about Apple's rumored AR glasses and what they'll do compared to Quest VR, but I won't be doing another Apple subscription.
I'm pretty fed up with subscriptions, but as they're the way of the future, I'll have to be very picky.
Trendforce likely has guessed very wrong here. It is far more likely that Apple will be targeting developers with the new headset for the first year. It is even possible that Apple will subsidize the cost of the headset so developers can afford them (as it did with the M1 Mac Mini prototype). I expect that the headset's biggest issue will not be the cost or a subscription. It will be whether or not a developer can get one. Apple does not really target the enterprise market any more other than with software features for otherwise consumer products.