A Wednesday note from TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple is planning a bunch of new hardware for the first half of 2020, including new augmented reality glasses that Apple will build with third-party brands.
A rough Google translation from the site MyDrivers covers the note, which was published in Chinese. (Kuo's notes are often released in Chinese first.)
Apple is working with third-party brands on the AR glasses and will unveil them in the first half of 2020, according to Kuo. Other companies, like Facebook, are partnering with third party companies such as Ray-Ban, to produce similar headsets.
Apple has put a lot of investment into augmented reality, which already works on most iPhones and iPads launched in the last few years. Augmented reality glasses allow people to overlay digital information on top of the real world, but haven't become popular since they're typically very bulky and don't look like normal glasses. Companies like Microsoft, Google and the start-up Magic Leap have all released AR glasses over the years, but none have gained massive consumer adoption.
Kuo said Apple is planning to launch its new lower-cost iPhone SE 2 and a new iPad Pro in the first quarter of next year.
Earlier this month, a separate note said that Apple's iPhone SE2 will use the same A13 chip in the iPhone 11 and a design similar to the iPhone 8. If pricing falls in line with the original iPhone SE, it should cost about $399, significantly less than Apple's iPhone 11, which starts at $699. Kuo said Apple will follow those launches with the release of a new MacBook with an improved keyboard in the second quarter, when Apple plans to also launch an augmented reality headset.
Kuo doesn't mention the 16-inch MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, which he previously said are launching sometime this month. Both are also expected to include new keyboard designs that fix the problems in the current models.
Finally, Kuo said Apple will launch its 5G iPhone in the third quarter of next year, echoing his earlier predictions.
