- Apple’s reportedly shelved plans for a pair of smart glasses that connected to the Mac
- According to Bloomberg, the glasses would have had “advanced projectors” for layering AR elements
- The smart glasses would have required a tether to the Mac
If there’s one thing for sure about 2025, it’s that the smart glasses sector is heating up with plenty of rumors about future Meta glasses that stretch beyond the readily available Ray-Ban ones, Samsung and Google working on a pair, and countless other competitors.
However, it seems that Apple’s reported work on a pair of AR smart glasses that would have connected to a Mac for power has been canceled or shelved this week, according to new reporting from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The glasses themselves would have taken the design of regular glasses – much like Ray-Ban’s Meta smart glasses – with built-in displays and the ability to connect to a Mac to unlock fresh experiences. The product itself has been rumored for quite some time, and like the Apple Watch, it wouldn’t have been an entirely standalone device.
The project, reportedly dubbed N107, would have had “advanced projectors that could display information, images and video in the field of view for each eye,” as described by Gurman. There can be comparisons made to Project Orion, which TechRadar got to demo and was impressed by, and like the Vision Pro – Apple’s $3,499 spatial computing headset – it can layer elements over the real world.
According to Gurman, the idea was to create smart AR glasses products for the masses, and the purported smart glasses would have fit that bill quite nicely, even if they required a connection to another device. It could have given Apple an offering at a lower price point than the Vision Pro and more in line with Ray-Ban Meta’s smart glasses or even the X-Real’s, which can also take a screen and broadcast it much larger with a pair of glasses.
Gurman writes, “The company shuttered the program this week, according to people with knowledge of the move.” Additionally, he shares that the internal testing wasn’t hitting the right mark with testers and that before Apple opted for the route of these connecting to a Mac, the original goal was an iPhone.
While this pair of Apple smart glasses is reportedly shelved – though, in classic Apple fashion, the company did not ever confirm its existence or development – the tech giant is reportedly still working on a more affordable Vision Pro, likely without ‘Pro’ in the name. At some point in the future, the goal is still to create “a set of standalone AR glasses.”
It’s clear that the eventual goal is glasses, as they are the most familiar design to consumers. Heck, I wear glasses every day, as do countless others, and this would likely lead to larger adoption. We’ve gotten a taste of these with Ray-Ban Metas, and while those lack a screen, the built-in cameras, speakers, and microphones do add some affordances, like snapping a photo without having to pull out your phone or listening to music while in a full, completely unobtrusive transparency mode.
This news comes right after Gurman shared more information on reportedly in the works AirPods with cameras, which could be seen as a way to go after the market currently filled by Meta’s Ray-Ban. Potentially, even helping Apple Intelligence and Siri be more helpful through sight.
We also know that Samsung and Google are working together on a pair of smart glasses running Android XR, but a headset dubbed ‘Project Moohan’ or whatever the actual product name might be will have to arrive first. Snapchat has a new pair of glasses that TechRadar’s editor-at-large Lance Ulanoff has tried, and Meta has Project Orion, which will likely arrive as a consumer product as early as 2027.
The experience that Apple created with Vision Pro is a compelling one, and definitely among the best mixtures of hardware, software, and features that I’ve tried. One of the biggest issues, though, is price – at $3,499, it’s not a product that you might just buy on a whirl, and Apple needs to work to get the price down. It’s clear that is a goal as well as giving future iterations a more comfortable, everyday form factor.
Gurman reaffirms that a more affordable Vision Pro headset is in the works and promises to share more soon in this latest report. Additionally, smart glasses that don’t require a tether from another device and other wearables, including AirPods with cameras, are still an eventual goal.
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