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-rumoredaugmented reality headsetis 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 theyears of anticipation, rumors, and speculation following the 2016 release of Apple’s smaller, least-expensive iPhone option, theiPhone SE. As we reportedearlier 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.
Similarly, rumors of Apple’s AR headset have swirled for years. In July, reports of the AR projectbeing axedhad circulated, but more recently, lines ofcode found in iOS 13pointed to Apple’s AR headset being very much alive.
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 upcoming16-inch Macbook Pro,previously tipped by Kuoto have this keyboard technology.
