Apple Glasses Could Be Unveiled in Mid 2021 and Made Available to Order in 2022

[CarlJ]

OK, so by 2030 we’ll all be gesticulating like crazy men.

Luckily, in Italy we’re already used to.

Hey, we’ve already got everyone walking around talking to themselves. This is just the next step.
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Aren’t these things a giant privacy issue? I remember something around the lines of places banning the Google glasses when they first came out...

I’ve read a credible prediction that, rather than a camera, they’ll use lidar.
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Will this support prescription?

Are you asking with the expectation that anyone here knows for a fact? Apple isn’t going to acknowledge that this exists, much less particulars of how it works, until they’re ready to unveil it. Until then, consult the Magic 8-Ball.

 

[mannyvel]

It would be awesome if Apple incorporated liquid lenses into this thing. It would be the perfect monitor and pair of glasses.

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[bollman]

 

[recoil80]

Let's not start that. That is the same as the "iPad is/is not a laptop replacement" bit.

This would be yet ANOTHER category of device, more like the iWatch is. Albeit one with way, way more impact, if done right.

There will still be big, small and medium-sized phones, tablets, laptops, etc, for those that want them.

Yeah.
Maybe it will be possible to take a picture with the glasses, but who knows? And what about selfies?
Batteries will be really tiny, can't imagine streaming stuff with them for hours, and people are so used to touchscreen it won't be easy to break the habits and have a completely different interaction.
How do you write a message with those? I'm not going to dictate my personal messages to my AirPods or Glasses unless I'm on my own, and even for trivial stuff I don't use Siri at all when I'm in a public place, I find it weird.

Maybe we'll use smartphone less, just like I sometimes interact with my Watch instead of taking the phone out of my pocket, but I still use both.

 

[mannyvel]

Glasses + Watch combo could definitely be an iPhone replacement in the future. But it’s like iPad Pro, sure it can do most things that a MBP can, but yet, it doesn’t quite do everything. There is room for all of these devices to coexist for quite a long while.

It'll make some form factors more appealing to apple. I don't need a big iphone because i drag my ipp and/or my mbp around with me. With glasses the big screen phone and even ipad is even less important.

Think of It like this: if Apple could make a phone with no screen, how small could it be? It would be all battery, basically. And because there wasn't a screen the battery could last for days.

Of course your screen dies when your glasses run out of battery...but then you still have siri with your headphones. They could even out a headphone jack in at that point.

 

[Rogifan]

I hope this isn’t something Apple announces and then expects developers to come up with all the use cases. They need to have demonstrable use cases on day one. One or two really good use cases that demo well on stage will be better than here’s this thing now developers go figure out a use for it.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

Yeah.
Maybe it will be possible to take a picture with the glasses, but who knows? And what about selfies?

The iPhone is the tool for that job. Until they put a camera on the Watch, at least.

Batteries will be really tiny, can't imagine streaming stuff with them for hours, and people are so used to touchscreen it won't be easy to break the habits and have a completely different interaction.

Let's dream a little: AirPods stream just fine for hours. Apple could fill the rims and legs of the glasses with battery and all kinds of other tech. What people are used to (and reject for that matter) depends on the available tech. I never could have imagined how AirPods work.

How do you write a message with those? I'm not going to dictate my personal messages to my AirPods or Glasses unless I'm on my own, and even for trivial stuff I don't use Siri at all when I'm in a public place, I find it weird.

They could use a holographic keyboard that tracks your hands via lidar. I'm spitballing here...

Maybe we'll use smartphone less, just like I sometimes interact with my Watch instead of taking the phone out of my pocket, but I still use both.

That is the intention. Just because one device that does some of the tasks of another is created doesn't mean the existing one will go away. You'll be able to use the right tool for the job. Your preferred tool, rather.

Some will want to use touch, some voice, some the Watch, some their laptop, etc., etc.
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I hope this isn’t something Apple announces and then expects developers to come up with all the use cases. They need to have demonstrable use cases on day one. One or two really good use cases that demo well on stage will be better than here’s this thing now developers go figure out a use for it.

When has Apple ever done that?

As far as I can recall there has always been a "killer app" or use-case or three shown at the keynotes.

Then after that, they say the trademark "I can't wait to see what you guys come up with" or something like that.

 

[G.McGilli]

I can't wait to see what the Edition Glasses look like and what they are made of... And how much they cost. Hopefully something to go with my Ceramic S5

 

[boss.king]

I’ve read a credible prediction that, rather than a camera, they’ll use lidar.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't it still need a camera of some sort for AR stuff? Or can lidar be used as a replacement?

Apologies if this is obvious, I don't keep up with AR stuff at all.

 

[Joniz]

Just give it up, Apple!

Unless, of course, you add a high-powered laser canon and targeting system, in which case I’ll seriously think about it.

But if I have to sign up for Apple Music to get it, then I’m gone.

 

[tyranne201]

With the glasses the need for a big phone goes away. Phones will go back to being feature phones or smaller, and will be a hub for apps and wireless comms.

Just like Apple killed cellphones back in the day, Apple will kill cellphones again.

I doubt people will go back to smaller screens just because of a pair of glasses. You probably wont be watching movies with that thing on your head.

 

[mannyvel]

I doubt people will go back to smaller screens just because of a pair of glasses. You probably wont be watching movies with that thing on your head.

With glasses, you can project your smartphone screen across your whole field of vision, which is obviously much bigger and more immersive than a phone. And once you do that you can take advantage of the fact that your vision, for the most part, is really bad everywhere except in the center of your pupil.

In any case they said the same thing about phone keyboards. Nobody thought on-screen keyboards would work, now finding a phone with a physical keyboard is a fool's errand. And nobody though people would watch movies on phones. I mean, how ridiculous is that?

 

[smulji]

When has Apple ever done that?

When Steve Jobs was in charge, always. He always made sure that whenever Apple introduced a new product line, Apple would lead the way with respect to first-party software to show developers what could be accomplished with the hardware. And then he encourage developers to see what they could come up with.

 

[The Game 161]

Seems jon has a video to release about these shortly

 

[Darth Tulhu]

When Steve Jobs was in charge, always. He always made sure that whenever Apple introduced a new product line, Apple would lead the way with respect to first-party software to show developers what could be accomplished with the hardware. And then he encourage developers to see what they could come up with.

My statement was in reference to the idea of Apple just leaving it to developers to figure out: "I hope this isn’t something Apple announces and then expects developers to come up with all the use cases."

Maybe you missed the rest of my post, where I basically said what you just did?

I guess I should've bolded the statement above...

That said, Tim Cook has continued to do the same: show what can be done, then encourage more innovation.

 

[Rogifan]

When has Apple ever done that?

As far as I can recall there has always been a "killer app" or use-case or three shown at the keynotes.

Then after that, they say the trademark "I can't wait to see what you guys come up with" or something like that.

I would argue Apple Watch and Apple TV. When the Apple Watch was first announced some argued that it tried to do too much versus focusing on a killer use case. When the new Apple TV interface was first announced Tim Cook said the future of TV was apps. That clearly didn’t turn out to be true.

In my opinion Tim Cook’s Apple has never been good at giving us the why. Phil Schiller is good at giving us the what, Jony Ive was pretty good at telling us how but no one was/is very good at telling us why. Take Apple News and Apple TV+. I still don’t think Apple has given a compelling reason for why they exist. Growing services revenue is a byproduct not the reason something exists. Look at all the different marketing angles we’ve gotten with iPad Pro. Maybe a lot of what Steve Jobs told us was BS or just spin but he sold that BS beautifully.

 

[Chytin]

This Jon is on a roll lately. Way better than Mark Gurman's people familiar with the matter, John Gruber's Birdy and Ming Chi Kuo's Apple Supply Chain sources. I wonder what he is going to show us soon.

 

[smulji]

This Jon is on a roll lately. Way better than Mark Gurman's people familiar with the matter, John Gruber's Birdy and Ming Chi Kuo's Apple Supply Chain sources. I wonder what he is going to show us soon.

Since December, Jon has been blowing Gurman out of the water. He's even giving Kuo a run for his money.

 

[Exile714]

Here's my fantasy use case for these Apple Glasses: I'm on my motorcycle, a turn is coming up. I don't want to look down at my phone and take my eyes off the highway. I don't want to look up into the corner of my vision to check a map. No, I want the directions literally painted on the road so I can follow them, like a big blue line leading to my exit.

If they pull off something like that, I'm in.

 

[urnotl33t]

Since December, Jon has been blowing Gurman out of the water. He's even giving Kuo a run for his money.

Just wait... later we find out “Jon Prosser” is some secret identity for Phil Schiller or worse... Scott Forstall with a secret off-book deal with Craig!

 

[Darth Tulhu]

I would argue Apple Watch and Apple TV. When the Apple Watch was first announced some argued that it tried to do too much versus focusing on a killer use case. When the new Apple TV interface was first announced Tim Cook said the future of TV was apps. That clearly didn’t turn out to be true.

In my opinion Tim Cook’s Apple has never been good at giving us the why. Phil Schiller is good at giving us the what, Jony Ive was pretty good at telling us how but no one was/is very good at telling us why. Take Apple News and Apple TV+. I still don’t think Apple has given a compelling reason for why they exist. Growing services revenue is a byproduct not the reason something exists. Look at all the different marketing angles we’ve gotten with iPad Pro. Maybe a lot of what Steve Jobs told us was BS or just spin but he sold that BS beautifully.

Hmm, I have to think about that. While I wholeheartedly agree that Steve was a better salesman and more importantly, a visionary, I think Tim is... okay.

The Watch had the health and fitness aspect, and Apple TV had a much better interface (I heard it didn't turn out as nice as advertised, but still). And the apps assertion was correct, at least from my perspective. I've been a cord-cutter for 5 years or so and all I use are apps for TV: the Netflix app, the Hulu app, Disney+, etc.

But perhaps you are correct, they haven't been as good as Steve in giving us the why, but they always give us one.

 

[citysnaps]

Here's my fantasy use case for these Apple Glasses: I'm on my motorcycle, a turn is coming up. I don't want to look down at my phone and take my eyes off the highway. I don't want to look up into the corner of my vision to check a map. No, I want the directions literally painted on the road so I can follow them, like a big blue line leading to my exit.

If they pull off something like that, I'm in.

That should be relatively easy!

 

[The Game 161]

Since December, Jon has been blowing Gurman out of the water. He's even giving Kuo a run for his money.

Kuo due to not as many sources as before I don’t think has the connections jon has. It’s why kuo doesn’t come out with that much anymore.

Jon has it seems 3-4 sources in apple who gives him info so it’s pretty much a lock to what is happening when he says it.

 

[smulji]

Kuo due to not as many sources as before I don’t think has the connections jon has. It’s why kuo doesn’t come out with that much anymore.

Jon has it seems 3-4 sources in apple who gives him info so it’s pretty much a lock to what is happening when he says it.

You're right. Kuo's sources come from the supply chain. He doesn't have any direct sources within Apple like Jon does.

 

[name99]

I expect it to be an AirPower situation, where they show the product off on stage then (hopefully) release is like a year later (which will give developers a chance to actually make it a useful product).

I think AirPower is widely accepted within Apple as a truly dumb mistake. The product didn't NEED to be announced (there was no need for buy-in from developers or accessory manufacturers or whatever).
I'm guessing the point was to create a kind of momentum for "Apple is going all-in on no wires", but even this is a kinda dumb logic -- it wouldn't have covered the iPad for a while or MacBooks for even longer.

So yeah, let's hope that this is not only NOT an AirPower situation, but that there are no further such situations!
You announce to developers at the latest possible moment, and if developers aren't involved, you **** until the product is ready for sale.!