Apple is exploring a push into smart glasses with an internal study of products currently on the market, setting the stage for the company to follow Meta Platforms into an increasingly popular category, reports Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman.
The initiative, code-named Atlas, got underway last week and involves gathering feedback from Apple employees on smart glasses, he says, quoting unnamed “people with knowledge of the matter.” Additional focus groups are purportedly planned for the near future.
“Testing and developing products that all can come to love is very important to what we do at Apple,” the group wrote in an email to select employees at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, according to Gurman. “This is why we are looking for participants to join us in an upcoming user study with current market smart glasses.”
There have been rumors for years about Apple plans to release “Apple Glasses.” I’d love for such a device to be available for under $1,000 so I could buy a pair for, say, my wife. (Of course, an even lower price would be better as Meta’s AR glasses start at $299.) Then we could, for example, watch Immersive Videos together.
The biggest problem, in my opinion, with the current Vision Pro (well, beyond price) is that it using it is a solitary experience. I realize that lower priced Apple Glasses wouldn’t offer the entire spatial computing experience, but such a device might at least make it possible to share some of those experiences.
Gurman says that Apple’s “smart glasses” would represent Apple’s strategy to bring augmented reality features to more accessible, affordable form factors. The tech giant is concerned about its current position in the AR market, with Meta already offering smart glasses at a lower price point, Gurman adds.
Apple Glasses sounds like a great solution.
