Apple AR Glasses Reportedly Still at Least Four Years Away From Launch

Apple's augmented reality glasses device is still at least four years away from launch, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.

Apple Glasses Purple Feature
In an extensive report detailing some of the challenges involved in developing Apple's mixed-reality headset, Gurman explained that the company's separate AR glasses product has been mired by similar issues. AR glasses were the product that CEO Tim Cook and former design chief Jony Ive originally wanted to build before technical limitations reduced expectations to the current "ski-goggle" headset form factor with video pass-through.

Apple apparently realized early in the headset's development that the long-term goal of building AR glasses with sufficient power was unfeasible. Engineers calculated that the glasses would have to provide the full performance of an iPhone with only a tenth of its power consumption to prevent them from getting too hot.

Mike Rockwell, a former Dolby executive hired to spearhead the development of experimental head-worn devices at Apple, has continued to describe the headset as laying the foundations for a future AR glasses device to secure resources. Apple's work on the device now receives only limited resources.

An employee working on the project told Bloomberg that there is a running joke on the team that the company continues work on the "hopeless" device simply to keep ‌Tim Cook‌ happy. Despite making no meaningful progress on the AR glasses by 2019, Rockwell told over 100 employees at an an all-hands meeting later that year that Apple could introduce the glasses just one year after it introduced the first headset – a time frame that now seems impossible.

Apple eventually postponed any serious development on a standalone glasses product for a period of years, "all but killing the idea." The company is now said to be at least four years away from introducing any such product.

Related Roundup: Apple Vision Pro
Buyer's Guide: Vision Pro (Neutral)
Related Forum: Apple Vision Pro

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Top Rated Comments

asdfjkl; Avatar
25 months ago


Attachment Image
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
UltimaKilo Avatar
25 months ago
Four years seems unrealistic. The tech simply is not there with lenses, semis or even other components.

End of the decade is maybe more realistic, but let’s see.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Candy Apple+ Nutz Avatar
25 months ago
And the Apple AR Contacts are at least a decade away…

???
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
25 months ago
Don’t bother launching it, please. Google tried and they failed.

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/05/20/google-glass-ar-headset-enterprise/
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cocky jeremy Avatar
25 months ago
I can't wait to jailbreak my eyes.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Hopefully Smarter Avatar
25 months ago
You can’t have an “externsive” report that has no facts in it. There are NO facts about this product anywhere.

I understand that Apple will monitor your behavior and punish you with spikes through your eyes if you abuse the product.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)