NVIDIA and MediaTek might be working on a brand new SOC that will be powering gaming handhelds and consoles.
29.04.2024 - 09:15 / wccftech.com / Mark Gurman / Omar Sohail / Sony
The demand for Apple Vision Pro is slowly dwindling, but the company’s long-term goals have not budged an inch. A new report states that the successor to the $3,499 AR headset could launch sometime by the end of 2026. However, there is a huge glaring issue that Apple needs to address, or this product category will most likely never take off, and that is pricing. For that to happen, the technology giant needs to bring down its component costs, but with each current-generation unit estimated to set back Apple by $1,542, the road to a more affordable head-mounted wearable is long and hard.
Apple was said to be evaluating two Chinese display suppliers in its reported effort to bring down the mammoth $456 sum it has to pay for its mixed-reality headset’s 4K micro-OLED panels. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, his latest ‘Power On’ newsletter mentions that the launch of the Apple Vision Pro successor may not happen until the end of 2026, but before a second-generation product materializes, the technology needs to bring down its cost somehow.
Fortunately, Apple could brighten its mixed-reality future with the launch of a low-cost headset, with previous reports stating that it may launch in 2025. However, there will be some striking differences between this version and the more expensive Apple Vision Pro, such as the more affordable option featuring an iPhone chipset instead of a Mac one or using a more inferior display than the dual 4K micro-OLED panels. The Cupertino will also attempt to revitalize Apple Vision Pro sales by launching the device in China later this year.
However, we will reiterate that this division’s fortune can barely change if the pricing problem is not addressed at this stage. An earlier rumor claimed Apple could reduce its display costs by 50 percent by partnering with Chinese panel manufacturers SeeYA and BOE. Whether the company forms this business alliance in the future is another story, but whatever changes the Apple Vision Pro successor will flaunt, we will continue to provide timely updates.
NVIDIA and MediaTek might be working on a brand new SOC that will be powering gaming handhelds and consoles.
The ‘less than stellar’ demand for the Apple Vision Pro has caused shipment estimates to drop to 400,000 to 450,000 units for 2024, a massive drop compared to the previous 800,000 estimates. Consumers are discouraged from making the AR headset their daily driver thanks to its ludicrous starting price of $3,499, and even though Apple intends to launch the device overseas, its ‘expensive’ problem is yet to be addressed. Fortunately, the company might overcome this hurdle with the Apple Vision Pro 2, with a rumor claiming that the successor will have a starting price of $1,500 and will add two new suppliers, Samsung and SeeYa, to the list.
A few rumors have clamored that Samsung intends to keep several areas of the Galaxy S25 Ultra unaltered compared to the Galaxy S24 Ultra, but the specifications bit might be another story. One tipster mentions that the Korean giant will finally introduce a RAM upgrade to its top-end flagship in 2025, but the internal storage might not change.
The M4 announcement during Apple’s ‘Let Loose’ event painted a rosy picture for potential buyers, and they would have likely believed that the latest iPad Pro models would have access to four performance and six efficiency cores. Unfortunately, that is not the case here because Apple cleverly hid the finer details from its audience, and to actually get the chipset with the 10-core CPU, you have to avoid the 256GB or 512GB models altogether. Hearing this is disappointing because the base model does not come cheap and is currently listed for pre-order at $999.
Apple Let Loose event was live-streamed today, May 7 at 7:30 PM IST in which the company unveiled several new products. While the main attraction of the launch event was the new generation of iPad Air and iPad Pro models, Apple also announced new iPad accessories. The accessories include an Apple Pencil Pro with several new features and an upgraded Magic Keyboard. Both the iPad accessories have a new design and features than their predecessor. Check out what Apple has in store for the new iPad accessories.
Apple Let Loose Event: Apple is all set for its Let Loose event, and Apple enthusiasts are buzzing with anticipation. The Cupertino-based company is gearing up for its first major event of the year, promising exciting announcements, particularly in its iPad lineup.
The M4 is expected to be announced later today during Apple’s ‘Let Loose’ event, and with the company already employing the use of TSMC’s 3nm technology before, we immediately assumed that the new silicon would be fabricated on this lithography. However, one report states that unlike the M3 powering various Macs and mass produced on the ‘N3B’ architecture, Apple’s M4 will switch to the updated ‘N3E’ process, resulting in various improvements. The report also mentions that the upcoming SoC will arrive in three variants, which is nothing unusual regarding Apple Silicon releases.
Apple will reportedly launch its new generation of iPad Pro and iPad Air tomorrow, May 7, 2024, at the “Let Loose” event. However, the event will be a pre-recorded video just like last year's ‘Spooky Fast' event for launching Macbook devices. Now, a new report about the iPad launch event has surfaced which claims the entire length of the video would be about 35 minutes. Know what Apple Analyst said about tomorrow's event.
Stardew Valley players have been trying to piece together just what triggers the bug in the 1.6 update that has been causing their valuable Prismatic Shards to disappear from storage containers. Now, one Stardew Valley player thinks they may have the answer.
The Pura 70 flagship series officially launched by Huawei also sports the company’s new Kirin 9010, a 12-core SoC that delivers a slew of improvements over its predecessor, the Kirin 9000S from last year. However, regarding lithography, the Kirin 9010 and Kirin 9000S are pretty much identical, with a teardown revealing that Huawei stuck with SMIC’s 7nm process to mass produce its latest SoC.
The Apple Vision Pro might not be a hit in the consumer market as updated shipment estimates have dropped to 400,000 to 450,000 units for 2024, but the $3,499 head-mounted wearable is a success in the enterprise division, with companies thoroughly impressed with what has been crammed into the device. During Apple’s Q2 2024 earnings, CEO Tim Cook revealed that half of Fortune 100 companies have purchased the AR headset, and it has proven itself to deliver immense utility in various applications.
Huawei achieved another milestone with its Pura 70 series launch and that is sourcing 90 percent of smartphone components from Chinese suppliers. With the U.S. export control barring foreign companies from shipping parts to the company to use in various products, Huawei was adamant about cutting off overseas manufacturers and relying on local firms to get the job done. So far, the progress has been impressive, and only a few components remain to completely eliminate dependency on supply chain partners outside of China.