Apple‘s upcoming mixed-reality headset will run a custom operating system, and a new report suggests that the software has been renamed to xrOS. Apple’s mixed reality headset is one of the most highly anticipated devices expected to launch in 2023. The device will be the first in a new product category for Apple.
Originally expected to make its debut at WWDC 2022, the mixed reality headset will reportedly be unveiled in January 2023. Alongside the headset, Apple is also working on augmented reality glasses that may launch only in 2025 or 2026. Apple’s main rival in the new category will be Meta, which already has a big presence in the AR/VR space with its Metaverse and Quest VR headsets.
The operating system for Apple’s mixed reality headset was originally called realityOS, but a report by Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman says that the name has been changed. Citing unnamed internal sources, Gurman says the operating system will now be called xrOS. The name realityOS and its shortened form, rOS, were used internally to refer to the operating system when development began about seven years ago. However, the company recently began referring to it as xrOS. The decision to include ‘XR’ in the name is to better reflect the mixed-reality headset that combines AR and VR.
Name Trademarked Across The World
The Bloomberg report adds that around the time the name was changed, a secretive shell corporation called Deep Dive LLC filed a trademark application for xrOS in the U.S. and several other countries. If Apple is behind the filings, it might use xrOS as the official name for its new operating system. The shell company began applying for the trademark in March this year, beginning in Switzerland before doing the same in the UK, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Canada, and the European Union. It also had a law firm oppose a Chinese company’s U.S. trademark application for the xrOS name. An interesting detail is that Apple isn’t the first company to use the name xrOS. Meta had a team consisting of hundreds of engineers developing an mixed reality operating system with the same name.
Additional details provided by the source mentions a new version of core apps such as Messages and Maps and a VR version of FaceTime. Furthermore, there will be a software development kit that developers can use to create their own apps and games for the platform. Bloomberg also adds that the headset and its software and apps are being developed by a secretive unit called Technology Development Group or TDG, headed by Apple executive Mike Rockwell. The operating system division is led by Geoff Stahl who has been at Apple for more than two decades.
