An Apple-linked company applied to trademark ‘xrOS’ in New Zealand.
Spotted by The Verge’s Parker Ortolani, the word mark uses Apple’s SF Pro typeface and was filed by Deep Dive LLC, a firm believed to be a shell company of Apple. Apple often uses shell companies to file trademarks ahead of launches, including macOS version names.
Apple’s headset operating system was seemingly originally called realityOS, and the company actually filed to trademark this last year, also through a shell company. But in December Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported the OS had been renamed to xrOS, citing “people with knowledge of the matter” and other xrOS word mark filings from that same Deep Dive LLC shell company in Switzerland, the UK, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Ukraine, Philippines, Australia, Japan, Canada and the European Union.
Interestingly, Meta reportedly scrapped development of a new operating system codenamed XROS last year.
Apple’s headset has reportedly been in development for more than 5 years now. Last year The Information published an investigative report detailing the product’s troubled development, outlining an evolution from a thin client wirelessly paired with a custom console to a standalone device covered with sensors and an external battery pack.
In August another Apple shell company filed to trademark ‘Reality One’, ‘Reality Pro’, and ‘Reality Processor’, suggesting the headset and its processor will be branded Apple Reality.
The Information and Gurman have previously reported the product will be priced around $3000. Prominent supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has claimed it will weigh noticeably less than Quest headsets and feature high resolution OLED microdisplays, while The Information has claimed it will be powered by the M2 chip seen in the latest MacBooks and feature iris scanning for logins and payments.
David Heaney
Last month Gurman reported Apple was building “a trove of software and services” for xrOS, and that it will support running multiple iPad apps at once (via the App Store) in a floating interface. Beyond those traditional 2D apps, Gurman said Apple is working on spatial versions of key apps as well as new AR & VR apps, including a version of the Freeform collaboration app letting users draw on virtual whiteboards together, a VR version of Fitness+, an immersive sports viewing service, and a VR version of FaceTime that “realistically renders a user’s face and full body in virtual reality”.
Gurman further claimed xrOS will feature an in-air virtual keyboard for text input but can also connect to an actual keyboard, presumably via Bluetooth.
So if the reports are to be believed, Apple’s product will have higher resolution, a more powerful processor, more features, and a slimmer design than Meta’s Quest Pro – though at perhaps three times the price.
Late last month Apple announced its yearly WWDC conference will take place June 5-9, with a “special in-person experience at Apple Park on June 5″. Gurman first wrote in February that Apple plans to unveil the headset at WWDC23 and has stuck by that claim in more recent reporting. Ming-Chi Kuo seems to concur, writing in a note today that it’s “highly likely” the headset will be revealed at WWDC.
