Apple is gearing up to launch the Vision Pro in early 2024, with production for mixed reality headset being ramped up in China ahead of release. As Apple’s spatial computer nears its launch, the company already has its eyes on the Vision Pro 2. The Cupertino, California based tech giant reportedly plans to bring even better displays to its second headset. Apple Vision Pro’s successor is said to get brighter and more efficient micro-OLED displays. The upcoming Vision Pro already has an excellent twin micro-OLED displays that, according to Apple, will feature more pixels than a 4K TV for each eye.
According to a report from market research firm Omidia cited by Korean news outlet The Elec (via MacRumors), the Apple Vision Pro 2 will get an RGB OLEDoS display when it launches in 2027. The new displays will represent an upgrade over the WOLED displays with colour filter used in the first-generation Vision Pro headset.
The report says that the upgraded displays do not require colour filters as the RGB OLEDoS technology generates light and colour directly from nearby RGB sub-pixels on a single layer. The displays that utilise the technology turn out to be considerably brighter and more efficient than WOLED and colour filter OLEDoS displays.
Additionally, the only company that currently supplies RGB OLEDoS displays is Apple’s longtime rival Samsung. According to the report, after its acquisition of OLED microdisplays manufacturer eMagin, Samsung will be the likely supplier for Apple in case the iPhone maker opts to upgrade the displays on the Vision Pro headset. This, however, would not be out of the ordinary as the South Korean technology conglomerate has long produced the OLED displays used on Apple’s iPhone models.
The Vision Pro 2 is reportedly already in development and is codenamed Project Alaska. Leaks last month had said the second-generation Apple headset could release in 2026 with redesigned rear strap. Other leaked specifications for the Vision Pro 2 include two Micro OLED displays with semi-automatic interpupillary distance (IPD) adjustment, a TrueDepth camera, four computer vision cameras, two RGB cameras, two low-light infrared illuminators, and a range of other smartphone sensors.
Meanwhile, the first-generation Apple Vision Pro units will reportedly be ready to ship by as early as January 2024. TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed earlier this week that the headset would be Apple’s “most important product of 2024.” The company is expected to ship as many as 5,00,000 units in 2024. Vision Pro units are said to be in mass production currently and will begin shipping by the first week of January 2024, as per Kuo. Apple hasn’t announced a concrete release date for its spatial computer and has stuck to an early 2024 launch timeline.