It seems Apple’s plans for making AR glasses are not dead after all, though it might take some time before the company puts them on the shelves. Bloomberg recently reported that Apple has shelved its AR smart glasses project, just like its doomed car project.
Now, the outlet claims that Apple has not entirely given up on that category. “I’m told that Apple’s long-term goal of standalone AR glasses remains intact, and the company will keep working on underlying technology — like screens and silicon — to help make such a device more feasible,” writes Mark Gurman in the latest edition of his PowerOn newsletter.
Apple’s rumored shelving of the smart glasses project seemed rather odd from the get-go, especially at a time when the form factor is finally catching up steam as a new form of computing. In fact, the smart glasses segment is quite vibrant, even more so than phones and laptops at a foundation level.
The likes of RayNeo, Xreal, and TCL are making glasses with a display unit integrated behind the main lens, opening the doors for immersive computing and content consumption. Razer and Amazon make Bluetooth-connected glasses without a display unit, but they connect with phones for handling calls and music playback.
Even the more ambitious ideas are coming from upstarts. Take for example the Halliday Glasses, which ditch the conventional display unit concept and use an “invisible” optical module. Then we have the Even Realities G1 glasses, which integrate the optical and display lenses for an amazingly minimalist way to show information.
The big dogs are not too far behind. Meta’s Orion smart glasses, which were recently showcased by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, employ holographic glasses capable of overlaying 2D and 3D content in real-time atop a person’s world-view. Google has also given us glimpses of its wearable vision over the past couple of years.
Apple’s own work with smart glasses, which was in development under the codename N107, was apparently no slouch either. “The N107 device had advanced projectors that could display information, images and video in the field of view for each eye, similar to augmented reality glasses being developed by Meta and others,” as per Bloomberg.
The internal development units of the smart glasses were also equipped with lenses that could automatically adjust their tint level. Apple will reportedly continue to work with the underlying tech stack and still aims to create a pair of compelling smart glasses that strike the right balance between comfort, firepower, and immersive capabilities.