Apple on the face of it no longer sees the futurity through augmented reality - tinge deoxyephedrine . grant to areport from Bloomberg ’s Mark Gurman , the company is ditch a project to build AR lense that would have competed with Meta ’s Ray - Ban smart glasses , putting the troupe at risk of falling far behind its rivals accompany the commercial-grade failure of the Apple Vision Pro headset .
The glasses labor , codenamed N107 , was never made public , butBloomberg reportsthat the plan was to build tech - equipped trash that see like any other twosome but offered augment realism features that could exhibit information seeable only to the person wearing the frames . An initial version of the intersection would have connected to an iPhone , but that was scrapped once it turn out the processing power need of the glasses stress out the handset and rapidly drained its battery . Apple shifted gear wheel to mate the glasses to Mac devices , but it continued to fall shortly of expectations in testing . Reportedly , the company threw in the towel on the project altogether earlier this week .
By ditch the augment reality ice , Apple is tacitly allow in that it just can not crack the VR / AR space . The Apple Vision Pro , introduce in 2023 , is a technically impressive gimmick with next to no use cases and an extremely cost - prohibitory Mary Leontyne Price tag , retail for $ 3,499 . Apple spent most of 2024 revising its visualise sales figures lower and lower , ultimately settling on anestimated 500,000 units sold , with little impulse to suggest the floodgate are just about to open up .
Apple Vision Pro headset on display in front of an audience.© Christoph Dernbach/picture alliance (Getty Images)
Meta , meanwhile , seems to have cracked the codification for AR spectacles — at least when it comes to sale . The ship’s company ’s Smart Glasses , a collaborative drive with Ray - Ban , sold over one million unit in 2024 , per details relayed in an all - hands call that wasreported by The Verge . The fact that the crank start at $ 300 probable service , as it make up them much more accessible to consumer , though it seems likely Meta might be subsidizing the cost so as to boost sales . Reality Labs , Meta ’s AR / VR division , miss $ 5 billion during the fourth fourth of 2024while return only $ 1.1 billion in sale during that same fourth dimension , even with the field glass becoming a mild hit .
Still , Meta is rifle all - in on the wearables . CEO Mark Zuckerberg floated the idea that the party could sell “ trillion of AI glasses ” in the future tense , which … sure if we ’re just saying stuff , why not aim gamey ? Whether it ’ll ever attain that figure , it ’s going to try . Meta is reportedly working on a couplet ofOakley - style AR glassesfor athlete and a Ray - Ban follow - up calledHypernovathat will sport a heads - up display .
Apple , meanwhile , seems like it ’s going to go back to the drawing off board . The caller has Vision Pro follow - up concepts in the works and an AirPods model equipped with cameras , per Bloomberg . But that sound less like a party with a vision and more like one that is just throwing stuff at the paries to see what joystick .
AppleApple Vision ProAugmented realitysmart specs
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , skill , and culture intelligence in your inbox daily .
News from the future , hand over to your nowadays .
You May Also Like
