Development on Augmented Reality 'Apple Glasses' Postponed Indefinitely

[giggles]

Apple makes the best wearable PCs in the world (Airpods Pro 2 with their on-board smarts and the Apple Watch Ultra with the still unmatched watchOS + S8).

Most companies can’t even get these 2010s era wearables right, Meta had to cancel their watch.

Apple makes the best LiDAR/TrueDepth-enabled gadgets in the world. Glasses need to have LiDAR.

If someone is best positioned to eventually get the glasses right, that someone is Apple. Eventually. Maybe not in 2025-2026.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

I see more use cases with a VR headset than AR glasses — but that aside, given this “report” comes from Bloomberg, I don’t put anything into it. As secretive as Apple is, do you really think Bloomberg “sources” have a good beat on what Apple is planning years down the road?

 

[sarcasticgamer]

I love how many people just gave up immediately upon seeing this. If you just did a bit of digging, you’ll know there was an AR optic breakthrough recently that will make all this possible. It’s only a matter of when not if before this is ready for the public.

 

[Jensend]

I’d rather AR glasses than a mixed reality headset, but that’s just me. Still excited to see a new wearable from Apple nonetheless.

That's mostly a meaningless statement. I'd rather have a 1 pound laptop than a 5 pound laptop, all other things being equal, and so would everyone else. But if the 1 pound laptop isn't powerful enough for my use case, and the 5 pounder is, I don't have much choice, except maybe just keep using the desktop computer.

You want them prescription to see? A monthly charge or they just don’t magnify. You want them to tint outside for sunglasses? A monthly charge or they just stay clear all the time. You want to have them on the internet out of the house? A built in nano sim to access the internet at a monthly charge.

I don't understand what this is poking fun at. Is there an example of Apple charging a monthly fee to unlock a hardware feature?

Can someone explain how “mixed reality” is different from “augmented reality”?

I think the main difference is if the device is opaque or transparent. Mixed reality would likely be an opaque device that uses video or 3D scanning to show your real environment from within the virtual environment, while AR lets you see the real world directly through transparent lenses, like the Microsoft HoloLens.

 

[ZZ9pluralZalpha]

Free editorial column time! Read on for opinions worth exactly as much as they cost!

This rumor, and the AR headset reports in general, has one glaring problem. The modern Apple is a maker of fashionable personal tech; remember how much flack they (deservedly) caught when Tim and Jony were pushing a gold Apple Watch with a five-digit price tag? The current gold-free Watch lineup, the AirPods that eschew larger batteries, even the AirTags with the less-than-protective loop holders—they all put a heavy emphasis on looking good while doing what they do.

VR headsets do not look fashionable, or cool, or good. The user may be having the time of their lives in a virtual paradise, but back in the real world, they look like a hallucinating idiot festooned in snorkeling gear. No amount of matte aluminium and glass can persuade even the most minimally appearance-conscious of Apple's target market to walk down an NYC street wearing a HoloLens.

It is true that we don't yet have the tech for mass-market glasses that are nearly indistinguishable from fashionable prescription frames or sunglasses while providing a fully immersive, wide field, vivid color, multi-hour AR experience. But we can certainly make a smaller single-eye display with a not-too-obtrusive form factor, as long as that device's societal acceptance isn't torpedoed by a too-obviously-there camera, Google roots, and evangelists that are the polar opposite of cool (a problem that VR has inherited today.) Which path does Apple seem more likely to choose: an amazing all-boxes-ticked experience that shreds every ounce of their chicness, or a decidedly limited subset of features in a form that can be picked up by tastemakers? To use an oversimplified analogy, did the first Apple Watch offer all the functionality of an iPhone in a wrist-mounted brick larger and heavier than three Ultras, or did it depend on an iPhone to do nearly all of its thinking while it flaunted a sleek (...for the time) shape and decorative bands?

I've been wrong on rumors more times than Gurman and the rest put together, but this I know: Apple will not attempt to sell something that looks stupid, or that makes its users look stupid, or that makes Apple look stupid. They will choose the design that does only a few things, but does each of those things fairly well, and above all looks good doing it. If they don't, they're no longer Apple.

 

[domhardy]

All I will say is that all of these "moonshot" projects have now failed, at least in our lifetimes, sad times:

• self-driving cars
• Google's much-hyped contact lenses for AR use
• AR glasses
• Google's Project Loon - remember that?
• Facebook's all-access internet
• Apple's Car project

These tech companies are slowly coming to the conclusion that there are mortal, just like everyone else, no matter how much your market cap is.

Your list is self-selecting. Lots of projects are "moonshot" projects....until they succeed. And then they would not make your list.

 

[giggles]

Free editorial column time! Read on for opinions worth exactly as much as they

1) VR headsets are not meant to be used while strolling down the street, more like at your desk or on the couch or in your living room or in your bed. AR glasses are meant to be used around, and those could be made to look cool.

2) I’m old enough to remember when even having your face constantly sinking into a smartphone like a monk reading his morning prayers would look weird and uncool, and yet 20 years later here we are.

 

[Wildkraut]

Can’t innovate anymore my ass. 🤣

As long nobody develop lightweight AR/VR glasses thin as normal glasses it won’t have a breakthrough as a lifestyle accessory and remain a niche device for development, prototyping, porn and a few AAA games titles. Well, AAA games isn’t Apple’s territory and development, prototyping, porn isn’t Apples primary sales goal. Apple wants to sell devices to the masses(end-consumers) and not just to developers, engineers, niche gamers and horny guy’s.

 

[Kissmo1980]

Don't care for AR, someone please invent the flying hologram (which follows you) so I don't need to become a Christmas tree for my devices. 😀

 

[skippermonkey]

What a massive non-surprise. I bet the car will be cancelled too.

‘Can’t innovate my ass.’ Nope, you can’t. Apple is massively successful but utterly stagnant under Cook.

 

[giebe]

that's a bummer. I'm waiting for these AR glasses since years and was really looking forward to it this year. All the other products are not interesting, as they are just incremental updates.

 

[Alpha God Vonn]

All I will say is that all of these "moonshot" projects have now failed, at least in our lifetimes, sad times:

• self-driving cars
• Google's much-hyped contact lenses for AR use
• AR glasses
• Google's Project Loon - remember that?
• Facebook's all-access internet
• Apple's Car project

These tech companies are slowly coming to the conclusion that there are mortal, just like everyone else, no matter how much your market cap is.

The tec is there . The tec we get be over 60 years old. It’s there. The time is not now

 

[steve09090]

People realise The Jetsons was a cartoon, right?

People expect Apple to be inventing the future before it’s possible. Apple can only produce products by pushing the limits of available technology and using them in certain ways reliant on imagination and skills of normal people.

If you want AR Glasses now. Make it yourself.
If you want a car and aren’t happy with the market, make it yourself.

Stop expecting Apple to make products that are not able to be made, yet. At least they are trying.

People are living a lie if they expect AAPL to create their fantasy.

 

[laptech]

wow, Google has acheived something that Apple has failed to do. What ever it's faults at least Google had a finished working product even if it was still in beta stage.

 

[DFZD]

Always better to dump it before its born.. its a real PITA getting rid of a toddler.. I wonder how Google does it so often.

 

[mozz2020]

This is a shame, can imagine useful applications for glasses in everyday situations. People are also very used to wearing them.

As much as I'm intrigued about the headset, I feel as though it's going to be a bit of a let down.

 

[Schizoid]

Jolly good, can we now have all the engineers back on iOS, macOS please…

 

[enterthemerdaverse]

Some of us have been trying to tell VR enthusiast and AR moon boys how difficult these products are to get right.

There are several threads of arguments on this subject.

They didn't want to listen.

Maybe now they will understand how difficult usability and reliability is with this device category.

I still think they won't understand. They don't come from engineering backgrounds, don't code, don't science. They were posting science fiction fantasies.

 

[mozz2020]

Some of us have been trying to tell VR enthusiast and AR moon boys how difficult these products are to get right.

There are several threads of arguments on this subject.

They didn't want to listen.

Maybe now they will understand how difficult usability and reliability is with this device category.

I still think they won't understand. They don't come from engineering backgrounds, don't code, don't science. They were posting science fiction fantasies.

Consider the moon boys informed.

 

[Sir Ruben]

I laughed when I saw this article as I had began to suspect Apple Glasses were not coming. If Apple are struggling with a AR/VR headset then there is no way they were going to perfect a pair of glasses any time soon. Also I think the article is wrong, people would rather have glasses that they can wear anywhere than yet another bulky headset with limited use cases. Good thing is that once Apple Glasses ARE a reality most of us will need glasses so they will be essential

As much as I love AR/VR I just don't see it becoming anything more than an enthusiast piece of tech. I'd love to be wrong though.

 

[kiranmk2]

Strange - I understand the massive challenge in having the glasses replace the iPhone (all the processing and battery is don in the glasses), but I would have thought that the first few versions would just be a set of sensors (camera, lidar, gyro etc) with display and enough battery for those with a fast data connection to an iPhone to do the processing.

If the tech for these basic elements still isn't ready then I hope Apple has at least given suppliers a list of requirements to keep working on so that the project can restart once the technology is available.

 

[Gudi]

Shocker! Another outlandish rumor with no basis in reality "delayed indefinitely" by Apple.

 

[NightFox]

But of course. It was a stupid idea to begin with. It's not a mass market product. It had fail written all over it. Just like Google Glass.

Have to disagree there - there's analogies with Apple Watch. Identify something non-technical that's already an integral part of the lives of billions of people around the world and bring technology to it.

There's about 4 billion people out there who already wear prescription glasses - that seems to have mass market potential to me. And then after that you've got the totally untapped market of people who don't need corrective glasses, but who want in on the product too.

 

[Frantisekj]

Timmy just hasn't found a way to turn it into a service yet. That's all.

In current and coming economic situation it is not strange they postponed it regardless of technical difficulties. It has to be closer to mass market to be viable.

 

[steve09090]

wow, Google has acheived something that Apple has failed to do. What ever it's faults at least Google had a finished working product even if it was still in beta stage.

How was it a finished working product if it's in Beta Stage? They released a half-baked product...

Or are you saying that it was an achievement that Google managed to release a half-baked product and Apple hasn't?