The much rumoured upcoming Apple mixed reality headset may be running an operating system called RealityOS, as was revealed earlier in May. More recently, it looks like this name will either be replaced, or the company will be using another name to refer to it in addition to the first one.
As Bloomberg reports, Apple has internally changed the name of the operating system from “realityOS” (which has also been shortened to rOS) to “xrOS”. Not exactly surprising, as XR is usually the shorthand to refer to extended reality, the umbrella term for the more specific VR and AR, as well as MR which combines the two. Around the same time as the name change, the report notes that a shell company named Deep Dive LLC has been filing for the name to be trademarked in several countries.
The report claims that the the name change is another sign that a launch will happen soon. Also claimed in the report is that Apple has plans to introduce the headset as early as next year, which is a pretty broad window. All that being said, the report doesn’t rule out the possibility of either realityOS, rOS, xrOS, or some other name be ultimately used as the “consumer-facing brand”.
The schedule for the supposed launch of this VR/AR headset by Apple have been much discussed, but ultimately none of them have come to pass as of yet. Back in 2019, reports cited sources who claimed that the company will first release an expensive first model with fancy components in 2022, with a more consumer-friendly one coming a year later. That has clearly not come to pass, to it remains to be seen if the more mainstream model will be coming in 2024 instead, or merely pushed back to the tail end of next year.
(Source: Bloomberg)
