Following Apple’s announcement of its Vision Pro platform at WWDC this month with a release date of “early 2024,” reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has issued a report detailing Apple’s plans to better integrate the iPhone with the Vision Pro ecosystem, starting with the iPhone 15 later this year.
Per Kuo’s tweet, Apple will “aggressively upgrade hardware specifications” of the iPhone as part of its effort to build a competitive ecosystem surrounding Vision Pro. “The ecosystem is one of the key success factors for Vision Pro, including the integration with other Apple hardware products, and related main hardware specifications are Wi-Fi and UWB,” Kuo wrote.
Kuo stated that the first step in the process will be an upgrade to the Ultra Wideband chip found in the upcoming iPhone 15. Kuo cited that the upgraded U1 chip will be more efficient and more reliable.
“iPhone 15 will likely see a specification upgrade of UWB, with the production process moving from 16nm to more advanced 7nm, allowing for improved performance or reduced power consumption for nearby Interactions,” Kuo says.
The U1 chip first debuted in the iPhone 11, and has been present in each iPhone model since then. The U1 chip is also present in Apple’s AirTag item tracker, the Apple Watch Series 6 and newer, the HomePod mini, the second-generation full-size HomePod, and the latest-generation AirPods Pro charging case.
The U1 chip handles a number of tasks, including Find My features, Handoff, Precision Finding, AirDrop, and more.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via 9to5Mac and @mingchikuo