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Apple’s AR headset tipped for 2020, following iPhone SE 2 and new iPad Pros

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Ming-Chi Kuo, the most accurate and prolific Apple analyst, has another hot tip for us. This time around, it looks like Apple’s iPhone SE 2 will launch in the first quarter of 2020 and the company’s long-rumored augmented reality headset is being prepped for launch in the second quarter of the same year, according to excerpts of a Chinese-language report translated to English.

That’s coming upon us quite quickly, especially considering the years of anticipation, rumors, and speculation following the 2016 release of Apple’s smaller, least-expensive iPhone option, the iPhone SE. As we reported earlier this month, Kuo indicates that the new SE will have a form much like the iPhone 8, 3GB RAM, and starting storage capacity of 32GB. Pricing, unfortunately, is not among the details.

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Similarly, rumors of Apple’s AR headset have swirled for years. In July, reports of the AR project being axed had circulated, but more recently, lines of code found in iOS 13 pointed to Apple’s AR headset being very much alive.

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Kuo’s latest details suggest that Apple’s new AR headset will primarily be a display device, wirelessly offloading processing tasks to a connected iPhone. Further, he specifies that Apple will work with third-party brands to release the first headsets. It would be quite uncharacteristic of Apple to have another company build the entire product, but sourcing particular components from outside manufacturers is common practice for the tech giant. Brands like TSMC and Samsung have supplied components for recent iPhones, but no particular names have yet been mentioned as partners on the AR headset.

In the same report, Kuo offers details that point to the inclusion of a TrueDepth camera on the back of two potential iPad Pro successors tipped to be released in the first quarter of 2020, along with the iPhone SE successor. This is presumably a feature meant to bolster AR performance in the iPad lineup, which would coincide well with the subsequent release of an AR headset the following quarter.

Lastly, the report suggests the Kuo sees an upcoming launch of a Macbook with scissor-switch keys in the second quarter, as well. It’s unclear at this time which Macbook model is being referenced but this could line up with the upcoming 16-inch Macbook Pro, previously tipped by Kuo to have this keyboard technology.

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Corey Gaskin
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