Apple’s long journey towards releasing an Apple VR/AR headset appears to have taken another small step forwards. Bloomberg (opens in new tab) has spotted some curious trademarks all with the same “Reality” branding that the company has been tipped to embrace.
Applications for the names “Reality One”, “Reality Pro” and “Reality Processor” were made in the US, EU, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica and Uruguay, the report says. This would seem to match the “RealityOS” trademark that was grabbed a couple of days ahead of WWDC.
While it’s true that Apple isn’t directly behind any of these trademarks, it isn’t exactly unusual for large businesses to cover their tracks via shell companies — especially when their movements attract as much attention as the iPhone maker. Notably, Bloomberg notes, the law firms used in each territory match ones used by Apple in the past.
The business that actually acquired the trademarks is a shell company called “Immersive Health Solutions LLC”, which was only incorporated in February, according to Bloomberg. This company was registered by the Corporation Trust Co — another shell corporation which is “typically used for filings by firms looking to avoid detection.” Notably, it was also responsible for the aforementioned RealityOS trademark.
What does Reality One and Reality Pro mean?
Assuming it really is Apple behind this, all or none of these brands could ultimately be used by the company. But it’s fun to speculate as to what each thing could be.
Reality Processor seems simple enough: it seems likely that this would be a special version of the Apple M-series chipset optimized for dealing with high-resolution AR and VR graphics.
The other two are more intriguing. Given Apple typically denotes “Pro” for more advanced versions of existing products (see the MacBook Pro, iPhone 13 Pro and iPad Pro), could it be that the company is planning two different headsets? Reality One could be an entry-level headset to rival the Meta Quest 2, while Reality Pro might be a pricier offering for serious users, for example.
We’re not expecting Apple’s foray into VR — its first new hardware category since 2015’s Apple Watch — until early next year.
That said, with the upcoming Apple event labelled “Far Out”, I can’t help but wonder if we might get some kind of spacey VR teaser in the mix. For now, check out our iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, Apple Watch 8 and AirPods Pro 2 hubs for what to expect next week.
