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

[Itinj24]

Can’t wait for these. I would really love to see a photochromic version too. I can think of a lot of ways these can be useful. Just think HUD in a car or aircraft, but even while walking so you’re attention isn’t diverted from what’s in front of you... directions, what song is playing, a readable text message, weather data and if it’s gonna rain in the next few minutes (Apple’s acquisition of Dark Sky), range finder, altitude, waypoints to get to a store in a huge mall, etc... can be customized for use specific cases like Apple Watch faces. One for workouts, one for driving, one for work at the office, etc and each “face” can be called up by asking Siri.
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So, Apple is now into Ophthalmology? No thanks..

Huh? Think you’re mistaking what ophthalmology is.

 

[Tech198]

How would these work for people who actually wear glasses to begin with?

Don't wear them while driving? I'd be keeping them seperate from my usual pair so i don't take the wrong ones.

 

[Abazigal]

How would these work for people who actually wear glasses to begin with?

I imagine there might be an option to have have them custom-made with prescription lenses. I suppose you might have to go to the apple store to have your eyesight taken, or Apple might partner with opticians for this.

 

[Pearple]

The only place where I want this is inside my motorcycle helmet.

 

[PostApple2016BrainWash]

The graphene battery will be widely adopt for augmented reality glass.

 

[Jeremy Mathers]

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.

it will be connected to the phone like Apple watch at first. I’d rather not have a bionic chip right next to my brain.
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This seems contrary to the idea that we're already getting too much screen time.

With the glasses were looking at the world with digital layers added on so at least our heads aren’t looking down at our phones.
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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.

The glasses will already know what you wanna do before you do it
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I imagine there might be an option to have have them custom-made with prescription lenses. I suppose you might have to go to the apple store to have your eyesight taken, or Apple might partner with opticians for this.

Exactly, it will be like Oculus Go where it ships normal and you can order prescription lenses but you could upload your prescription to Apple while ordering the glasses.

I think the glasses are going to be round like the Steve Jobs ones

 

[ConfluxNZ]

If Jern ends up leaking this, Apple will come down on him like a tonne of bricks and with a wrath we have never seen before... Leaking an entirely new product category is not the same as leaking specs for an established product like the iPhone. He will be diminishing, if not destroying, countless hours of work by countless teams and individuals at Apple. As well as giving their competitors a leg up.

I say all this as a huge fan of Jern. I hope he does the right thing and holds off on any such leaks until a few days or hours before the product is officially announced.

 

[The Game 161]

If Jern ends up leaking this, Apple will come down on him like a tonne of bricks and with a wrath we have never seen before... Leaking an entirely new product category is not the same as leaking specs for an established product like the iPhone. He will be diminishing, if not destroying, countless hours of work by countless teams and individuals at Apple. As well as giving their competitors a leg up.

I say all this as a huge fan of Jern. I hope he does the right thing and holds off on any such leaks until a few days or hours before the product is officially announced.

There’s not much they can do unless they find the employee who gave him the information.

 

[nylonsteel]

im more interested in a mini hud in stylish glasses
with camera capability
most important - not looking obviously like "smart glasses" to others than the wearer
A possibly huge market
ps - vr goggles look silly

 

[mazz0]

The HomePod is basically a smart speaker for iPhone users who use Siri and Apple Music, since no such combination currently exists in the speaker market (and likely never will, since Apple doesn't open up Siri to third parties). It's really more to prevent them from defecting to spotify and other voice assistants. I don't have the HomePod (it's not available for sale in my country), but if I were to get one, the killer app for me is probably the ability to use Siri to play Apple Music, the same way I do so on my iOS devices.

The Apple TV is there for users who want a premium viewing experience. For me, the killer app is its ability to integrate with my other apple devices and services, allowing for some degree of consistency. The UI on my 5th gen ATV (the one with the A10x chip) is fluid and smooth, and I guess I am one of the few posters here who actually likes the remote for how easily it lets me scrub through content and scroll around. I am also going to assume that by using apps through the ATV instead of those bundled with smart TV, the TV manufacturers don't get my usage / viewing data, so there's that added element of privacy and security.

I do wish Apple would make a TV stick just for airplay mirroring. I have a couple of 3rd-gen Apple TVs in my school just to mirror my iPad to the projector screen, and I would love to be able to invest in a few of those sticks to bring around with me for presentation purposes.

As for the Apple Watch, I find it's really more of a bunch of conveniences rolled into one tight little package. I use my watch for notifications, Apple Pay, Siri, calendar events (via the Siri watch face), quickly viewing app data (like passwords stored in 1password), music controls and well, just telling the time. It really is like a remote control for your phone. For me, the killer app is being able to quickly see incoming notifications on my wrist, which means I don't have to fish out my phone every time it buzzes, as well as be informed of upcoming lessons (I have my timetable reflected in my phone as calendar events, which notifies me 15-30 minutes prior so I have enough time to get ready for my next class). When you are constantly on the move, every little convenience matters.

Right, so what you’re describing is “just having a better User Experience”, not “having a killer app”. I agree, I think that’s Apple’s strength.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Only thing that can replace my smartphone is a chip placed inside my brain...

Oh you mean like Elsyium (and what Elon Musk thereafter has his other company working on)?!!

no thanks! Elysium has already shown us what data breach/theft is like using a system like that. I’d rather data stolen vs being brain dead.

 

[name99]

I own an Apple TV and have for several years and I’m mostly happy with it -SIDE NOTE the remote sucks-but it really isn’t much more than an expensive Amazon Firestick or Roku. Having apps is fine, having apps with desirable content appears to be more difficult. Years ago the iPod became big because they got the rights to sell digital music back when streaming was a dirty word to music publishers. Without the legal music that iTunes could sell the iPod would have been a novelty at best. With legal digital music it was absolutely dominant. Netflix showed years ago that getting movie access then producing their own content was profitable. Apple should have bought either long term rights or better yet content production entities like Disney or NBC/ABC/CBS or Warner or 20th Century. This should have been done before the first Apple TV was released. They needed something for people to watch on the ATV that they couldn’t easily get elsewhere.

"Having apps is fine, having apps with desirable content appears to be more difficult."
Exactly what is this massive reservoir of desirable content that's not available on Apple TV?

We both agree that should work to make Apple TV a more desirable, more unique product. But I would argue that historically trying to do this via unique content has generally not worked well. There is already vastly more content than anyone can watch right now; the usual consumer response to tying content to one particular channel is "well then, I guess I won't watch that" not "I have to go acquire that channel".

Compare to selling Walmart or Target specific versions of CDs -- how many people do you know who specifically went out to get the Walmart-exclusive CD?

Don't be too sure that you know the full story around Netflix: there are multiple ways to succeed.
Netflix has chosen one path, the "shovel deep and high" path. With the results you'd expect -- lots of consumers, few of them absolutely in love with the company, lots of money coming in --- but mostly even more going out to fund all that random content.
HBO meanwhile has a very different strategy, more "few but ripe". Fewer subscribers, but fiercely loyal.

Both are viable strategies, but everything else about Apple suggests its media strategy should be like HBO, just like everything else Apple does -- appeal to the consumers willing to pay more for better, rather than appealing to the low-end consumers who care less about quality as long as it's cheap and in volume.

 

[DeepIn2U]

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.

Teachers of K12 students and professors of higher education are going to have a field day with students lack of attention spans watching YouTube and movies with glasses on.

where is my X-Ray vision glasses from Mad Magazine?!

 

[mannyvel]

Developers and Marketing Dep. are often enemies, because marketing likes to sell dreams.

Marketing sells the future. Developers deliver the present. The best developers know the future is important. The best marketing people understand that today isn't tomorrow.

 

[filmbuff]

I would be more likely to buy Apple glasses if they had no screens or tech features at all and were just a nice pair of glasses.

 

[Abazigal]

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.

Considering how the smartphone is now a miniature computer we bring around with us all the time, I don't see it going away any time soon. We are also likely a long way away from the Apple glasses or even the Apple Watch becoming its own standalone device. In addition, being able to offload most of the processing to the iPhone is likely what will allow the glasses to remain thin and light, look like a normal pair of spectacles, and still have all-day battery life.

I think back to how the Apple Watch doesn't exactly replace my iPhone, but it has taken on numerous tasks and made them easier to perform compared to my smartphone, such as Siri, managing notifications and Apple Pay. And then you ask yourself - what's even more convenient than a screen on your wrist?

A screen right in front of you at all times!

I expect the primary use case of the Apple glasses to be initially limited to any tasks that involves passive viewing of data / content, with minimal interaction or feedback needed from the user. Even with Face ID and Siri, I imagine it's going to be awkward trying to control your glasses via voice or gestures.

I guess the most obvious use case might be viewing turn-by-turn directions on your map. You can just continue walking with your phone in your pocket, and your glasses will beam the directions to your eyes and inform you when it's time to turn.

No doubt Apple has a few other envisioned use-cases up their sleeve with the glasses will be optimised for.

Next year is going to be interesting.

 

[smulji]

We are also likely a long way away from the Apple glasses or even the Apple Watch becoming its own standalone device.

The Apple Watch is only one step away from becoming a stand-alone device. It's so close. The only thing standing in the way of that is that the Watch is only available on the iPhone. If Apple develops the Watch app for other platforms (ie: Windows, Android) or devices (Mac, iPad), then the Apple Watch will have achieved that goal. All of the other pieces are already available beginning with watchOS 6

 

[Flow39]

A watch is as far as I'd go with wearable tech. Glasses are a nuisance, especially when I don't wear them already. I wear sunglasses only when I have to, and I wouldn't start wearing glasses just because they have some smart features.

 

[bobob]

Apple Glasses will be known by their distinctive styling and purposeful lack of camera.

 

[Brien]

I think the glasses are going to be round like the Steve Jobs ones

I imagine multiple frame options, style and whatnot, like the watch.

If these take off looks like glasses will be chic.

 

[il_teo77]

I, for one, have a hard time imagining Apple glasses' usefulness. Apple is great at Hardware but the glasses need content, and lots of it, and in this Apple is sorely lacking. Siri is now powering the HomePod and it allows me to evaluate how it performs. Besides specific tasks, Siri is utterly useless. Imagine having glasses, searching for an information only to be asked to take out your iPhone and search the web on it. The usefulness of the glasses is really tied to the amount of data you can access, such as the history of a building (architect, history, etc etc) or the "availability of a apartments as an overlay of the view around you) etc etc. In none of these Apple has any meaningful position. Either produce them and then let people use other companies' software (Google, Airbnb, Car manufacturer, Facebook, Instagram etc etc) or leave it be. I simply cannot see the true use of these except in relationship with other companies which immediately makes me wonder how privacy will be managed.

Don't get me wrong. I think glasses have the potential to be an enormous product, the only problem is that Apple doesn't have any content whatsoever to make the bes use of them and the user will have to rely entirely on other companies platforms. Starting with Siri. As said, HomePod is the user case where one immediately perceives the uselessness of Siri except for very specific tasks, and in a very limited set of languages (which also reduces the potential geographical markets of such a product).