Apple Eyes 2026 for Smart Glasses
Mark Gurman
In yet more curious timing out of Apple this week:
Apple Inc. is aiming to release smart glasses at the end of next year as part of a push into AI-enhanced gadgets, but it has shelved plans for a smartwatch that can analyze its surroundings with a built-in camera.
Company engineers are ramping up work on the glasses — a rival to Meta Platforms Inc.’s popular Ray-Bans — in a bid to meet the year-end 2026 target, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Apple will start producing large quantities of prototypes at the end of this year with overseas suppliers, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the products haven’t been announced.
This comes one day after the initial reports that the first device out of the OpenAI/io partnership has a target launch date of... the end of 2026. Is Apple hustling to get their own AI hardware out the door to meet this new product from their former designer in the market? Or perhaps they just woke up to the fact that the end of 2026 is 18 months from now, and Meta will likely have two more iterations of their smart glasses in market by then. Hell, even Google and their partners — notably Samsung and Warby Parker — may have a couple pairs in the market already by then, as they also announced at I/O (the conference, not the company), this week.
At the same time, it has been reported, also by Mark Gurman, that a new, fully functional and conversational Siri may not be ready to roll until 2027. If Apple is taking this long in AI, and if AI is set to be a focal point of any smart glasses, are we at all confident in that 2026 timeline?
Apple’s glasses would have cameras, microphones and speakers, allowing them to analyze the external world and take requests via the Siri voice assistant. They could also handle tasks such as phone calls, music playback, live translations and turn-by-turn directions. The approach would be similar to that of Meta’s current glasses and upcoming devices running Alphabet Inc.’s Android XR operating system.
It's pretty clear that these aren't the "real" glasses that Apple wants to make. But they're seemingly "playing the game on the field" as it were with these would-be smart glasses. Perhaps they're starting to realize that AI is just a different game, and if they aren't in market, improving their models at scale, any eventual flagship product will be DOA.
One person with knowledge of the glasses said they will be similar to the Meta product but better made. The Meta device has increasingly become a hit with consumers, and the company is planning a higher-end product for later this year. Those glasses will include a display, letting wearers see notifications, pictures and other relatively simple visuals. The social networking giant is planning its first pair with true AR in 2027, Bloomberg News has reported.
I mean you would expect anything Apple does to be "better made" but Meta's product is also in market right now. And actually, have been for almost four years. With real people using them and enjoying them — and sending back a lot of learnings (and data!) to Meta, which they’re using to iterate the product quickly. Also, it's not like Meta is in charge of the design here, clearly EssilorLuxottica's Ray-Ban has most of the say style and build-wise. Can Apple make better glasses than an actual glasses maker? I guess we'll find out!
The company had actively been working to release a camera-equipped Apple Watch and Apple Watch Ultra by 2027, but that work was shut down this week, according to the people familiar with the situation. The company continues to work on AirPods with cameras.
Shutting down the Apple Watch cam is probably good news. It didn't make a ton of sense and Apple just needs to focus.
People working on Apple’s smart glasses remain concerned that its AI failings may undermine the new product. The Meta Ray-Bans and upcoming glasses running the Android operating system benefit from the strength of Meta’s Llama and Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence platforms.
Yes, I would be concerned about that too.
One more thing: One thing not happening – a thought I had in November of last year upon reading about Apple's initial smart glasses exploration, codenamed 'Atlas':
No surprise that the company is exploring this path given the success of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The question is if a project is already well underway or if this internal survey is an initial market analysis. The latter would be mildly concerning as it would mean a product is *years* away. The years away product should be actual AR glasses – i.e. Meta's 'Orion' glasses – not these "smart" glasses. I think if Apple doesn't launch these next year or 2026 at the latest they'll have likely mistimed the market. And maybe it is an interim market that isn't big enough to matter to Apple, but the AI/AR insight to be gleaned from such devices could be more important than the actual bottom line element. But that's never been an equation Apple is very good with... Something else, oddly, Apple hasn't been great with of late: fun. These smart glasses should be fun. Also: who might they team up with, with EssilorLuxottica out? Safilo? Marcolin? Might be worth picking up the Jony Ive Batphone here...
Well, they've seemingly got their 2026 timetable now. But they will not be using that Jony Ive Batphone here... Awkward.
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler