Apple CEO Tim Cook is obsessed with beating Meta to the market with consumer-grade AR (Augmented Reality) smart glasses. And, according to industry insider Mark Gurman’s newsletter Power On, the company may be a lot closer to releasing a pair of AR glasses than anyone might have been expecting.
Apple’s smart glasses already exist, sort of
According to Gurman, suppliers based overseas are already producing small quantities of Apple’s AR smart glasses, as the company is still moving forward with the project at full speed. Naturally, these are unlikely to be complete and finalized products, but if anything exists at this point in time, then we shouldn’t be too far off from a commercial release.
Which company's AR smart glasses would you be more willing to try?
Meta
25%
Apple
58.33%
Other
8.33%
No one's
8.33%
Expect a preview alongside iPhone 18
Meta wants to release something similar in 2027. | Image credit — Meta
Given the pace of Apple’s progress on its smart glasses, it’s not too farfetched to believe that the company may show off its glasses before the end of next year. Showing them off alongside the iPhone 18 series would be pretty cool, in my opinion, but Apple may want that event to focus solely on the new phones, especially the new foldable iPhone.
If Apple does show us a preview of its glasses next year, then it will be pretty much confirmed that Apple is trying to release them in 2027, alongside the Meta Orion glasses.
The end of the Apple Vision Pro?
Unfortunately, the Apple Vision Pro was just an experiment at best. Apple released the refreshed M5 Vision Pro this year, but kept the $3,499 price tag. Not many consumers are willing to drop that much for Apple’s headset, not when the Samsung Galaxy XR exists.
The new Vision Pro was released just to keep the company relevant in the XR (Extended Reality) market. Apple doesn’t expect to sell many Vision Pro headsets, and the lighter and more affordable version that was under development has reportedly been cancelled so that more resources can be allocated to the glasses.
Our Apple Vision Pro review showed that the headset has a ton of potential, but Apple’s insistence on doing things its own way has made sure that there will be very limited interest. If the Apple AR smart glasses really are this close to release, then I think that the Vision Pro will be on the chopping block very soon, right next to the self-driving car.
Abdullah loves smartphones, Virtual Reality, and audio gear. Though he covers a wide range of news his favorite is always when he gets to talk about the newest VR venture or when Apple sets the industry ablaze with another phenomenal release.
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