For a long time, we've heard rumors that Apple is developing some form of augmented reality smart glasses. Nothing has come to light on this, although we now have the Apple Vision Pro, which bears some similarities to potential AR glasses, albeit in a much bulkier form factor.
However, despite companies like Meta and Snapchat showing off cool demos of AR glasses, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that it will take Apple about 3-5 years to “get the approach right.”
While Apple continues to work on its own pair of AR glasses, a release is still a long way off, according to Mark Gurman's Power On newsletter:
I'm told Apple is continuing to work on AR smart glasses, but there won't be anything coming anytime soon.
Apple would need to get a lot of things right to make a product like this work. They would need to miniaturize a bunch of the computing components, create a fashionable design, deliver battery life that makes the product truly useful, and develop high-resolution displays that don’t compromise the media experience too much.
Apple could probably squeeze all of these things into a wildly expensive pair of glasses, but probably not into something that would be consumer-friendly. Companies like Snapchat and Meta have introduced pairs of AR glasses, but they aren’t consumer products. Meta’s pair are just a demo prototype, while Snapchat’s pair are only available to developers through the Snapchat Spectacles developer program for $99 per month.
I personally had the chance to try out Snapchat’s AR glasses last month — and they were certainly impressive. They had a few shortcomings, like the field of view, but it was still an impressive demo. Although I'm sure the form factor is a bit too bulky for Apple.
It makes sense that Apple isn't ready to release a pair of AR glasses, but that doesn't stop them from being disappointing.
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