If you’ve been looking to buy a pair of smart glasses but have trouble choosing between Meta’s Ray-Bans and Amazon’s Echo Frames, Apple may be throwing its own pair into the mix. The Silicon Valley giant could be developing smart glasses that are similar to the former brand.
Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman wrote in his latest PowerOn newsletter Apple’s standalone smart glasses would be infused with AI, cameras, microphones and premium audio features — much like the Ray-Ban smart glasses by the parent company of Instagram and WhatsApp. The glasses would also be lightweight and heavily integrated with the iPhone, allowing users to wear them all day.
However, according to Gurman, it would take three to five years for Apple to develop its own smart glasses and bring it to the wearables market. Even so, the company is exploring ways to make it a reality.
Apple continuing its discussion of the development of its smart glasses comes amid the commercial failure of the Apple Vision Pro headset, with consumers citing its hefty $3,500 price tag, discomfort, and failure to live up to expectations of making waves in the AR/VR space. The company also tried developing AR glasses that would compete with the Ray-Ban smart glasses, but that got scrapped because the device failed evaluations, and the development team kept moving goalposts for it reach its full potential. If Apple does charge ahead in making the smart glasses that take on the appearance of Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses complete with Apple accessories and cosmetics, we may not see them until 203o.
