Apple Glasses Rumors Resurface as iPhone Supplier Tapped to Make Parts for Augmented Reality Product

[MacRumors]

Catcher Technology, a Taiwanese company that manufacturers metal casings for Apple products like iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks, will make parts for an augmented reality product, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

Apple Glasses concept via Gadgets Arena​

Catcher chairman Allen Horng reportedly said augmented reality products "need to look good" and "be light enough to wear."

"Based on what we have learned, [new AR products] need to look good and be light enough to wear ... that makes the casings for such device very complicated to manufacture and there are still a lot of challenges to overcome currently," Catcher Chairman Allen Horng told analysts and reporters in an earnings conference on Tuesday.

Horng would not disclose which company was behind the augmented reality product, but given the comments and Catcher's relationship with Apple, the report has reignited speculation about so-called Apple Glasses.

Apple is reportedly exploring digital glasses that would connect wirelessly to iPhones and "show images and other information in the wearer's field of vision." The company supposedly has prototyped "several different kinds" of wearable augmented reality products, but a launch is still far away.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has repeatedly expressed a "profound interest" in augmented reality, recently said "the technology itself doesn't exist" to make the glasses "in a quality way." He said there are "huge challenges" with "the display technology required, as well as putting enough stuff around your face."

Jeff Pu, an analyst at Taipei-based Yuanta Investment Consulting, believes Apple's glasses will go on sale as soon as the end of 2019. Earlier reports mentioned 2018 as a possible timeframe, but that sounds increasingly unlikely.

Today's report marks the second time Catcher Technology has surfaced in the Apple rumor mill this week. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo on Monday said the company will supply Apple with "more complex" metal frames for iPhones launching in 2018 for the purpose of improving cellular signal and data transmission.

Article Link: Apple Glasses Rumors Resurface as iPhone Supplier Tapped to Make Parts for Augmented Reality Product

 

[imran5720]

Apple will never do it

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Apple has made it pretty clear in the past that they don't think glasses are the way to go. I'd be surprised to see this happen.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Didn't the same Apple ask "who wants video on an iPod" and relentlessly ridicule bigger screen smart phones until rolling out their own?

Apple has a history of taking big pokes at what they don't have for sale now but then seeming to forget such messaging as soon as they roll out their versions of the ridiculed.

I have a hard time myself seeing glasses-based technology go mainstream. But, as is, I think Apple could stick their logo on the ball in a classic ball & chain and the masses would soon be struggling to get from here to there... and seemingly so very proud of it. Then "upgrading" the ball the very next year to get the slightly different colored version. Then "upgrading" the ball again the next year to get the "thinnest ball ever but with the same great weight." Then happily rolling with it when Apple decides to jettison the crucial chain portion to an accessory (upsell) item (sold separately of course). Then, buying multiple chains once Apple decides to roll out the fashion (chain) collection in a variety of colors & finishes.

 

[deany]

Apple would be a bit short sighted doing this.

 

[sziehr]

I was unaware that the iPhone X had signal issues with the metal casing. That is the real takeaway here the rest is kinda rumor mill throw away.

 

[JM]

Apple would be a bit short sighted doing this.

Maybe they see something you don't.

 

[iapplelove]

They haven’t even sold me on watches yet.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Maybe they see something you don't.

Of course. They wear prototype AR glasses!

 

[star_nerdy]

Don't knock it.

Say what you want about Google Glass, but it worked pretty well. The tech was pretty awesome and worked well. The issue with the hardware was lack of processing power, which led to overheating and quick depletion of the battery.

But as a camera, it worked well. It worked well on displaying data. It's way faster to tap on a pair of glasses to record than to pull out your phone. The video is also way more consistent via glasses than by hand.

Augmented reality via your phone will not work for the same reason touchscreen desktops don't work, they suck when you use them for long periods of time.

VR like Oculus is going to die like the Virtual Boy. It is a cool tech for bursts and it makes you feel like you're there, but the high end hardware and extra devices make it less desirable. And make no mistake, head mounted displays aren't new. There has been research on VR since the 1950s-1960s. While the graphics have improved since then, you're still required to be stationary.

 

[deanthedev]

Glassholes? We don’t need no stinkin’ Glassholes.

 

[DotCom2]

Apple will never do it

Well if they do, I hope they don't look like THAT! LOL!

 

[icanboogie]

Maybe we will finally see an Apple VR/AR Headset for mounting an iPhone?
The lenghty X would make a nice wide field of view. Also OLED, Resolution, HDR etc. would suit well.

 

[TreyCox]

This could be really great. I look forward to seeing it.

 

[ConfusedChris]

If the tech was hidden in brand-name shades etc then maybe people would go for it. What do I know? People seem happy enough to walk around with bright-white AirPods hanging out their ears.

 

[Gorms]

This is 2-3 years out minimum.

 

[testcard]

My money’s on AR cufflinks.

 

[iapplelove]

Apple has made it pretty clear in the past that they don't think glasses are the way to go. I'd be surprised to see this happen.

Didn’t Tim Cook make a statement on this? That Apple has no interest in this market.

 

[meaning-matters]

I wish Reality Distortion (RD) glasses.

 

[guzhogi]

I could so see (no pun intended) someone modding them to look like a VISOR from Star Trek. Hook them up directly to your visual cortex, while they're at it.

Ooh, what about the Borg? Tap into the brain's power, add in some form of wireless communication (wifi, LTE, whatever), and you'll be your own hotspot.

 

[icanboogie]

I wish Reality Distortion (RD) glasses.

...but will it be ARD or VRD glasses?

 

[Foogoofish]

And... **just like magic**, it just lets you see better. Isn't that cool?

 

[trusso]

I miss the days when Apple Computer made... well, computers.

Don't get me wrong; glasses or no glasses, the technology Apple and their peers continue to develop is stunning by any objective standard. No one alive 100 years ago could have imagined how fast the world would change in the coming century.

But computing used to be (and still can be, if you choose wisely) about empowering the individual and bringing down the barriers to creation and communication. As it stands now, "empowerment" is only a word used in lip-service, if that – a hollow shell scraped of its former meaning. Big business (of which Apple is certainly a part) has discovered that enough glitz and glamour will compel most of us to trade in real freedom for the illusion of it; and those of us who speak out against it are liable to be held as luddites, sophists, et cetera.

"Our civilization is wonderful, in certain spectacular and meretricious ways; wonderful in scientific marvels and inventive miracles; wonderful in material inflation, which it calls advancement, progress, and other pet names; wonderful in its spying-out of the deep secrets of Nature and its vanquishment of her stubborn laws; wonderful in its extraordinary financial and commerical achievements; wonderful in its hunger for money, and in its indifference as to how it is acquired; wonderful in the hitherto undreamed-of magnitude of its private fortunes and the prodigal fashion in which they are given away to institutions devoted to the public culture; wonderful in its exhibitions of poverty; wonderful in the surprises which it gets out of that great new birth, Organization, the latest and most potent creation and miracle-worker of the commercialized intellect, as applied in transportation systems, in manufactures, in systems of communication, in news-gathering, book-publishing, journalism; in protecting labor; in oppressing labor; in herding the national parties and keeping the sheep docile and usable; in closing the public service against brains and character; in electing purchasable legislatures, blatherskite Congresses, and city governments which rob the town and sell municipal protection to gamblers, thieves, prostitutes, and professional seducers for cash. It is a civilization which has destroyed the simplicity and repose of life; replaced its contentment, its poetry, its soft romance-dreams and visions with the money-fever, sordid ideals, vulgar ambitions, and the sleep which does not refresh; it has invented a thousand useless luxuries, and turned them into necessities; it has created a thousand vicious appetites and satisfies none of them; it has dethroned God and set up a shekel in His place."​

-Mark Twain
​

But I digress. I don't wish to hijack this topic, merely offer my three cents.

 

[44267547]

This could be really great. I look forward to seeing it.

It definitely has potential behind it if it was a possibility. But this type of technology, especially given Apples timeframe and how they release products, which they are a little bit slower than others, this would be at least 3 to 5 years out In my Opinion.

 

[citysnaps]

Didn't the same Apple ask "who wants video on an iPod" and relentlessly ridicule bigger screen smart phones until rolling out their own?

Apple has a history of taking big pokes at what they don't have for sale now but then seeming to forget such messaging as soon as they roll out their versions of the ridiculed.

I have a hard time myself seeing glasses-based technology go mainstream. But, as is, I think Apple could stick their logo on the ball in a classic ball & chain and the masses would soon be struggling to get from here to there... and seemingly so very proud of it. Then "upgrading" the ball the very next year to get the slightly different colored version. Then "upgrading" the ball again the next year to get the "thinnest ball ever but with the same great weight." Then happily rolling with it when Apple decides to jettison the crucial chain portion to an accessory (upsell) item (sold separately of course). Then, buying multiple chains once Apple decides to roll out the fashion (chain) collection in a variety of colors & finishes.

It's not that Apple forgets or takes pokes. It's to keep competitors in the dark with disinformation.