Apple went to Metaverse and introduces VR headset: archiving
Maybe the Metaverse isn’t dead after all.
Apple is usually at the forefront of technology, but has yet to publicly engage in the world of mixed reality and the metaverse, despite other major tech players, such as Meta, already making their own variants of VR headsets.
Still, rumors have been swirling for months that something is in the works at Apple about the possibility (or rather, the inevitability) of what its debut in the metaverse will look like.
Now that question could be answered. According to trademark patents, it appears that Apple has registered for its first mixed-reality operating system, which will be called xrOS.
The trademark was first spotted by a Twitter user who provided screenshots of the filing with the New Zealand Intellectual Property Office.
holy shit! Apple last week trademarked (via a shell corp) an “xrOS” wordmark in SF Pro in New Zealand pic.twitter.com/Ow274yyuBU
— Parker Ortolani (@ParkerOrtolani) May 16, 2023
“holy sh*t! Apple last week trademarked (via a shell corp) an “xrOS” wordmark in SF Pro in New Zealand,” he wrote.
In the screenshot, the image appears to follow the same format as Apple’s iOS operating system – from the font to the capital “OS” at the end.
Bloomberg initially reported in December that Apple had trademarked xrOS, citing “knowledgeable people” and noting that the operating system would work with both virtual and augmented reality. At the time, an Apple spokesperson at its Cupertino, California headquarters declined to comment on the rumor.
Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Meta’s VR set Oculus, claimed to have tried out Apple’s VR set, calling it “so good”, though neither Apple nor Meta confirmed the test.
The Apple headset is so good.
— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) May 14, 2023
Apple’s famous yearbook Global Developers Conference is scheduled to begin on June 5 and run through June 9, where xrOS is expected to be announced.