If one thing is certain about 2025, it is that the smart glasses industry is heating up, with reports circulating about future Meta glasses that go beyond the easily available Ray-Ban ones, Samsung and Google working on a pair, and a slew of other competitors.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple appears to have canceled or shelved its rumored work on a pair of AR smart glasses that would have connected to a Mac for power.
- Apple’s reportedly shelved plans for a pair of smart glasses that connected to the Mac
- According to Bloomberg, the glasses would have had “advanced projectors” for layering AR elements
- The smart glasses would have required a tether to the Mac
The glasses would have been designed in the style of conventional glasses, similar to Ray-Ban’s Meta smart glasses, with built-in displays and the ability to link to a Mac to unlock new activities. The gadget has been rumored for a long time, and like the Apple Watch, it would not have been a standalone device.
According to Gurman, the project, codenamed N107, would have included “advanced projectors that could display information, images, and video in the field of view for each eye.” It can be compared to Project Orion, which AG4Tech demoed and was impressed with, and, like Apple’s $3,499 spatial computing headset, the Vision Pro, it can layer components over the real environment.
According to Gurman, the goal was to make smart AR glasses goods for the masses, and the rumored smart glasses would have filled the bill beautifully, even if they required a connection to another device. It may have provided Apple with a product that was less expensive than the Vision Pro and more comparable to Ray-Ban Meta’s smart glasses or even the X-Real’s, both of which can take a screen and broadcast it much larger with a pair of glasses.
Gurman states: “The company shuttered the program this week, according to people with knowledge of the move.” He also mentions that internal testing was not meeting the expectations of testers, and that before Apple chose the route of connecting them to a Mac, the initial target was an iPhone.
While this pair of Apple smart glasses is supposedly shelved – though, in typical Apple manner, the company never confirmed its existence or development – the tech behemoth is reportedly still working on a more cheap Vision Pro, most likely without the ‘Pro’ in the name. At some point in the future, the ambition remains to produce “a set of standalone AR glasses.”
The ultimate goal is clear: glasses are the most familiar design to consumers. Heck, I wear glasses every day, as do countless others, and this would most likely lead to increased adoption. We’ve had a taste of these with Ray-Ban Metas, and while they don’t have a screen, the built-in cameras, speakers, and microphones bring some conveniences, such as taking a snapshot without having to pull out your phone or listening to music in full, fully unobtrusive transparency mode.
This announcement comes shortly after Gurman revealed further details about rumored AirPods with cameras, which might be viewed as a tactic to compete with Meta’s Ray-Ban. Potentially, this might enable Apple Intelligence and Siri be more helpful through sight.
We also know that Samsung and Google are collaborating on a pair of smart glasses running Android XR, but a headset called ‘Project Moohan’ or whatever the actual product name is will have to arrive first. Snapchat has a new pair of glasses that TechRadar’s editor-at-large Lance Ulanoff has tested, and Meta has Project Orion, which will most likely be available as a consumer product as early as 2027.
The experience that Apple built with Vision Pro is captivating, and it is unquestionably one of the best combinations of hardware, software, and features that I have tried. One of the most pressing difficulties, however, is the price – at $3,499, it’s not a gadget you’d buy on a whim, and Apple needs to try to lower the price. It is evident that this is a goal, as is providing future iterations with a more comfortable, everyday form factor.
Gurman confirms that a more cheap Vision Pro headset is in the works and promises to reveal more information in the upcoming report. Furthermore, smart glasses that do not require a tether from another device, as well as other wearables like AirPods with cameras, remain a long-term aim.
