Apple and Meta headsets could face a big challenge: Sticker shock

Apple and Facebook parent Meta are expected to release mixed reality headsets in the coming year that could finally fulfill the industry’s promise to turn head-worn devices into the next big shift in personal computing.

But there’s one major potential snag: sticker shock.

The best-selling virtual reality headset, the Meta Quest 2, retails for $400 and accounted for 78% of the nascent VR market in 2021, according to IDC. Consumers who want the next-generation technology are going to have to spend multiples of that.

Meta’s forthcoming high-end headset, codenamed Cambria, is expected to cost at least $800, the company said earlier this year. Apple’s unannounced device could reportedly cost thousands of dollars. That’s a hefty load for products in a category that’s yet to go mainstream. Just 11.2 million VR units were shipped last year, IDC said. Apple sells that many iPhones every few weeks.

To expand the market, Meta and Apple will have to convince consumers that more advanced systems will be worth the investment. Both companies are reportedly betting on a new technology called passthrough mixed reality, which requires better displays and more processing power.

If passthrough mixed reality works as advertised, a VR headset would also function as a set of augmented reality glasses, enhancing the possibilities for applications and real-world use.

With existing VR devices, the experience is limited to what’s on the headset’s display. In passthrough AR, powerful cameras on the outside of a VR headset take video of the outside world and send it to two or more displays, one each in front of the user’s eyes.

This allows for developers to play with mixed reality, overlaying software or graphics on the video of the real world from just outside.

Believers in mixed reality say that we’ll eventually be able to condense the technology into a lightweight pair of glasses with transparent lenses. But that’s for the future.

The passthrough approach is emerging as the preferred near-term option because optical transparent displays are nowhere near ready for primetime. The problem for today is that passthrough mixed reality requires a lot of expensive parts and a powerful headset, limiting the size of the market.

In addition to the advanced cameras, passthrough devices need depth sensors that can take detailed video and measurements of the user’s surroundings. They also have to track the user’s eyes so as not to waste power generating graphics that will go unseen. And they need powerful processing capabilities and software to reduce latency so that what the user sees inside the headset isn’t delayed or blurred.

Most important is the high-resolution screen that needs to be much denser than a smartphone display because it’s so close to the user’s eyes. Smartphone screens average about 550 pixels per inch, but mixed reality devices require displays with about 3,500 PPI, according to CounterPoint Research.

While Meta and Apple haven’t released their headsets, a few devices currently on the market support passthrough mixed reality. The experiences tend to be limited — black and white or low-quality video — because of a lack of processing power.

A few weeks ago, I was able…