What does Apple’s ‘Deep Screen’ trademark mean for its Reality Pro AR/VR headset?

If Apple really is about to announce the Reality Pro AR/VR headset during its WWDC23 event next month it’ll bring to an end of years of development and rumors. Now, it appears that Apple has already been working to get its trademark ducks in a row.

Apple often uses shell companies to apply for trademarks ahead of a product’s announcement as a way to try and avoid its plans from becoming public knowledge. That appears to have been the case here, with a Deep Screen trademark having been applied for in multiple countries including the United States.

The trademarks were applied for by a Deep Dive LLC, rather than Apple.

Secretive Apple

Australian references to Deep Screen were spotted by Twitter user @schappi and reported by MacRumors (opens in new tab).

It isn’t yet clear what the Deep Screen trademark will be used for, but it’s thought that Deep Dive LLC is a shell company owned by Apple based on previous trademarks relating to xrOS — the operating system thought to power the Reality Pro headset. However, the Deep Screen name could allude to the immersive experience that the headset is expected to provide.

Interestingly, these new trademarks were applied for in 2017 and 2018 while some have been allowed to lapse — perhaps suggesting that Deep Screen won’t be used as a product or feature name after all.

Apple is expected to announce its first AR/VR headset during an event on June 5, but it’s unlikely that it will go on sale until much later in the year to allow developers to work on their apps ahead of release.

The June 5 WWDC event is also expected to unveil the 15-inch MacBook Air, while new software for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV should also debut. While the MacBook Air is likely to be available almost immediately, those software updates aren’t going to be ready until around September based on previous release schedules.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to ‘explain’ those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn’t looked back. Since then he’s seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He’s been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.