According to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, Apple has poached Andrea Schubert, Meta's AR PR head, in charge of marketing and PR for AR/VR headsets. Andrea Schubert's LinkedIn page shows that she has been working for Meta for nearly six years.
Gurman explains, "Meta and Oculus have always been the market leaders in headset devices, so such a hiring makes sense as Apple launches its products. At this year's Black Friday and Cyber Monday events, Meta's Oculus Quest 2 is one of the best-selling products. Not to mention that at Christmas, Meta's Oculus app topped the U.S. App Store and became the number one app on the Google Play Store today, which could indicate that a lot of people received this headset as a gift this holiday season.
Rumors around Apple's AR/VR devices continue to circulate, there is a speculation that Apple will release products in 2022, and it seems that Apple has prepared talents for the listing and marketing of the hardware. Although Apple may be poaching people from Meta for its own augmented reality project, there is no official announcement at present.
Bloomberg has previously reported that the headset could cost as much as $3,000, come with an 8K display and 3D sensors for hand tracking, and may also rely on connecting an iPhone or Mac to perform complex tasks. Perhaps, Apple will officially unveil the rumored headset soon. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that this mixed reality headset may be launched sometime in 2022.