Zhi DongXi (public number: zhidxcom)
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Zhidong January 17 evening news, since Last November Guo Mingqi revealed Apple's research and development of the first generation of headset products, Apple's upcoming AR glasses products have attracted wide attention. The industry broke the news that Apple will equip the new generation of headsets with "desktop-level" chips with performance comparable to M1, which has aroused public expectations.
The high expectations for AR glasses bring a lot of speculation about the name of the device. According to Apple's naming habits for previous products, Bloomberg Gurman believes that the application of names such as "Apple Vision" and "Apple Reality" is relatively high.
Apple showcased the MAC's VR features at WWDC 2017
From the iPod to the iPhone, Apple's naming is always unexpected
In 2001, Apple released its first music player called "iPod", a title that surprised the public. Later, the "iPhone" gained support from the beginning of product development, beating the naming schemes such as "Mobi" and "TelePod". Before the release of Apple's tablet, everyone speculated that the product name would be "iTablet", "iSlate", etc., and finally "iPad" hammered out. These are not very unusual. But Apple's naming of the newly produced smart watch has exceeded the public's expectations. Because even within the industry, Apple basically assumed that it would adopt the name "iWatch", even CEO Tim Cook called it in his 2014 job interview. But the real name of the last new generation of smartwatches is "Apple Watch", which is really surprising.
▲Apple Watch released by Apple
Legend has it that Jobs named products after he returned to Apple was usually named after the dictionary with Phil Schiller, the head of marketing. However, the naming process is now more complicated. Apple's marketing department spends weeks listing all the words that might be useful. Now the names of Apple products, such as "iPhone", are more prominent product features.
Second, there are many speculations, is it Apple Vision or Apple Reality?
Before that, Google and Snap had released Google Glass and Snap Spectacles, but neither was favored, especially since Google Glass was considered a complete failure of naming. Avoiding such naming, there is currently the following speculation about the naming of Apple AR glasses:
Apple Vision: That's the name that's most likely to be taken. First of all, this title sounds very futuristic and technological, and at the same time does not point to any specific technology, but only emphasizes the product positioning of new visual media.
Apple Reality: Because virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are the core technologies in headsets. The word "reality" can be used to refer to both the rOS (reality Operating System) operating system used by the device, and the word itself has a broad meaning. This name can not only be used to name the headset, but also for the naming of AR glasses in the future. For example, the first generation of headsets can be named "Apple Reality" and the AR glasses developed later can be named "Apple Reality Glasses", and the two are in the same vein.
Apple Sight/iSight: The odds of the name "iSight" are slim. Because "iSight" is reminiscent of the video chat camera released by Apple 15 years ago, it will cause confusion, and Apple basically no longer uses "i" as the beginning of the name of the new product. In comparison, "Apple Sight" is more promising.
Apple Lens: The name isn't very likely either. Although Apple's first generation of AR glasses used interchangeable lenses, users are essentially looking at high-resolution displays, and the name does not quite match the characteristics of the product itself. Moreover, "Apple Lens" and microsoft released the name of the headset "Holoens" is very similar, Apple is estimated to be difficult to adopt.
Apple Goggles: Apple often picks "fun" names for its products, such as "iPod Shuffle," "iPod nano," and "Air, which is used today on MacBooks and iPads." In addition, there are naming habits such as "Apple Pencil" and "Apple Card" that imitate the logic of the real world. Although "googles" is interesting and in line with the tradition of analogy reality, the public generally understands the term as swimming goggles or protective goggles, which is very different from the product itself, and it is estimated that Apple is unlikely to choose.
Apple AR, Apple VR, Apple XR, Apple MR, Apple SR: First, Apple is unlikely to put the name of a specific technology in the name of the product, and most mainstream consumers do not understand these terms, and may even confuse the Apple XR with the iPhone XR of a few years ago.
Currently, these names are not searchable in the trademark database of the United States. Based on past secrecy traditions, it is likely that Apple has registered trademarks in different countries, and it is also possible that Apple has not yet decided on the name of the first generation of headsets. But next year can basically guarantee that Apple will be public.
Third, strong chip capabilities, Apple AR glasses are highly anticipated
In October 2021, Apple has thrown out the "king explosion" M1 Pro, M1 Max chip, Apple expects to launch the AR glasses need to carry out 6-8 lenses of real-time optical processing, computing power demand is much higher than the iPhone, so the use of Mac-class processors, super high chip design capabilities and high requirements for the headset on the processor caused the public to expect a new generation of headset devices.
In November, Guo Mingqi, an analyst at Tianfeng Securities, claimed that Apple will launch AR glasses in the fourth quarter of 2022, and that this AR glasses will be equipped with two chips, one high-end and one low-end. Among them, the computing power of this high-end chip will be comparable to that of Mac computers, which means that the chip performance of Apple's AR glasses may be close to that of the M1 series chips.
At present, most of the chips used in AR glasses are mobile chips based on mobile phone SoC design, such as Qualcomm's XR series chips are used in mainstream AR headsets, and the performance of Qualcomm XR2 chips is about between Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 888. Once Apple AR glasses use a chip with performance close to M1, then the computing power of Apple AR glasses will be significantly ahead of similar products, so the work that can be competent will be more extensive.
▲ Qualcomm released XR2 chip
Conclusion: High-performance devices have spawned high attention, and Apple headsets have become an important weather vane
For Apple's yet-to-be-released AR glasses products, the public "did not see its body, the first trend", a large number of naming speculation shows the public's high attention to the new headset products. Compared with other names, "Apple Vision" and "Apple Reality" are closer to the characteristics of Apple's upcoming AR glasses, emphasizing the close connection with virtual reality and highlighting the sense of technology.
This high level of attention is mainly due to the advanced configuration of Apple's new generation of AR glasses, especially the powerful chips that can be compared to the M1 series. Apple can provide powerful computing power for AR glasses to meet the real-time processing needs of AR glasses. Apple's first AR glasses may become a key variable in the development of the industry.
At present, there are fewer AR glasses landing products, mainly because of the high technical threshold and the lack of application ecology, according to the breaking information, Apple AR glasses are more applicable scenarios, and whether it can change the AR ecology or bring "killer applications" in the AR field is worth looking forward to.
Source: Bloomberg