Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Apple has reportedly hired Andrea Schubert, Meta’s communications and public relations lead for its augmented reality (AR) products, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter. Schubert’s LinkedIn page indicates that she’s been working for Meta for nearly six years.
“Meta, with Oculus, has been the market leader in headsets, so such a hire makes sense as Apple nears its launch,” Gurman explains. On both Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, Meta’s Oculus Quest 2 was one of the top-selling products. Not to mention that Meta’s Oculus app topped the App Store in the US on Christmas Day, and became the number one free app on the Google Play store today, a potential sign that a significant amount of people received the headset as a gift this holiday.
Rumors continue to swirl around Apple’s AR/VR headset, with Apple remaining tight-lipped about the product. Bloomberg previously reported that the headset could cost a whopping $3,000 and come with 8K displays, along with 3D sensors for hand tracking. The headset may also have to rely on a connected iPhone or Mac for processor-heavy tasks. We might not have to wait too much longer for Apple to officially take the wraps off of the rumored headset, however. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that the mixed-reality headset could launch sometime in 2022.