The two trademarks of the term “realityOS”, which appears to be a shell corporation, indicate that Apple is about to unveil its much-anticipated mixed-reality headset.
The markings, identified by Verge journalist Parker Ortolani, were filed on December 8, 2021, and were apparently intended for an unpublished product: the owner “did not show evidence of use anywhere.” Currently, that owner owns an LLC called Realityo Systems. Ortolani explained that he could not find any details about the company and that it did not own any other trademarks. As a result, he suspects that it is a shell corporation designed solely for Apple to silently file these trademarks, a tactic it has used in the past to conceal impending launch activity.
So far, the story doesn’t seem particularly explosive, especially given that we already know that Apple refers to its AR / VR plans in-house as reality OS. But the real gift is the international filing deadline for trademarks: June 8, 2022, just two days after WWDC, and giving Apple enough time to move the trademark from Shell Corporation to its summer get-together launch.
As Ortolani puts it, this certainly cannot be a coincidence. All signs now point to an announcement next week, and what we thought could be an internal codename is becoming official public branding.
The headset, which is expected to combine elements of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), has been in the pipeline for many years. We’ve been writing about Apple’s plans in this area since 2017, and in early 2018, pundits began naming the device’s launch date (or at least a year).
Is the Apple headset finally going to appear at WWDC 2022? We’ll find out next Monday. Join us here for a day of announcements and expert analysis.
The original image is a concept image courtesy of Antonio de Rosa.