Apple Kills Augmented-Reality Glasses Project

[kac77]

Apple Kills Augmented-Reality Glasses Project​

By AJ Dellinger
Published January 31, 2025

Apple apparently no longer sees the future through augmented reality-tinted glasses. According to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company is ditching a project to build AR lenses that would have competed with Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, putting the company at risk of falling far behind its rivals following the commercial failure of the Apple Vision Pro headset.

 

[El_Capitan]

My brother's rich, and I got to try the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro of his. It's really crisp and clear, and pretty amazing. The only downside is that there's not much you can do on it.

 

[Lakados]

My brother's rich, and I got to try the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro of his. It's really crisp and clear, and pretty amazing. The only downside is that there's not much you can do on it.

The lenses and optical setup were amazing I’ll give Apple that, but Apple had 2 major issues. For the industrial applications it was too fragile to replace the Hololense, and for the design tools it wasn’t compatible with the software to replace the Hololense.
So it’s a neat gadget with no practical purpose, an expensive technological tchotchke if nothing else.

 

[Lakados]

Apple should have worked with Nintendo and the Pokémon company for AR glasses that let you play a much improved version of Pokémon Go….
I mean… I likely would have been required to buy at least 3 pairs…

 

[Sycraft]

My brother's rich, and I got to try the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro of his. It's really crisp and clear, and pretty amazing. The only downside is that there's not much you can do on it.

That was always their problem: No killer app. All Apple's marketing was "You can do what you do on your iPhone or Macbook... BUT IN AR!!!1111one" While that sounds neat, in reality people will play with something like that and then set it aside because putting on your goggles is way more work than just opening up your iPhone to look up a recipe while you cook and the big screen TV that you almost certainly own if you could afford these does an easier job of playing movies than wearing them.

To get people to want to use them and expand the market there would need to be something that you could only do with them, or at the very least do way better. It's true of basically all technology. If you want to convince people they need something new, especially if that something new is expensive and inconvenient, then it'd better do something cool that they can't already do. Otherwise they'll just stick with what they have. When it is inconvenient, then even those that do buy it will end up setting aside.

Apple should have worked with Nintendo and the Pokémon company for AR glasses that let you play a much improved version of Pokémon Go….
I mean… I likely would have been required to buy at least 3 pairs…

Apple just can't into gaming for whatever reason. Like, they try and play at it occasionally but for whatever reason they just don't ever want to commit to it. Hence there was zero gaming tie-in with the goggles.

 

[LukeTbk]

The lenses and optical setup were amazing I’ll give Apple that, but Apple had 2 major issues. For the industrial applications it was too fragile to replace the Hololense, and for the design tools it wasn’t compatible with the software to replace the Hololense.
So it’s a neat gadget with no practical purpose, an expensive technological tchotchke if nothing else.

I think a third one that fit with the other 2, for non industrial-commercial use (and even there) they are seen as extremely anti-social device for personal use.

Could have work as a niche industrial-employee training tool/simulator, but not sure Apple is interested in this type of market that much, for personal use that a demo gap before comfortable AR glasses that cannot really work in between

 

[Sycraft]

Could have work as a niche industrial-employee training tool/simulator, but not sure Apple is interested in this type of market that much, for personal use that a demo gap before comfortable AR glasses that cannot really work in between

Apple just flat refuses to do shit like that. They never like the industrial/enterprise market, despite getting use there. People usually have to hack around and get 3rd party solutions to make their shit work like it should in such environments (why they don't buy better tools in the first place is a mystery).

Apple generally doesn't want to make something unless it'll be the hip thing in the retail market. They should have realized that wasn't going to happen when even with their huge marketing team the best they could make the goggles look on models was "extremely dorky". I remember when the first marketing shots came out all I could think of was "If this is the BEST they can make those look, they aren't going to go anywhere."

Sure enough, wealthy tech nerds bought them (my cousin being one of them) and played with them, but even most of them weren't willing to wear them out in public. Then, as the novelty wore off they went up on the shelf and just sit there.

 

[Toboggan]

I agree this type of tech is very, very anti-social and people just don't like putting hardware on their face, something about it feels uncomfortable and detached from normal existence

 

[Aurelius]

AR glasses that look and function like normal eyewear at the same time? Great. But it’s technically very difficult at present, and even Meta knows its Orion glasses are early stuff that won’t bear fruit for years.

So I’m not surprised that Apple has axed what it was working on, at least for now. I could see it coming back if and when the tech is there and Apple can make a good use case for it.

Frankly, Apple needs a visionary again. Not a copy of Jobs, because we wouldn’t want or get one, but someone who shares that general sense of where everyday tech is going and makes products because they’re going to change the landscape, not from fear they’ll miss out.

 

[noko]

AR glasses that look and function like normal eyewear at the same time? Great. But it’s technically very difficult at present, and even Meta knows its Orion glasses are early stuff that won’t bear fruit for years.

So I’m not surprised that Apple has axed what it was working on, at least for now. I could see it coming back if and when the tech is there and Apple can make a good use case for it.

Frankly, Apple needs a visionary again. Not a copy of Jobs, because we wouldn’t want or get one, but someone who shares that general sense of where everyday tech is going and makes products because they’re going to change the landscape, not from fear they’ll miss out.

Glasses can be tolerable, use phone to be the computer part, even supply extra battery power via phone to glasses with magnetic plug. iPhone 16, all versions have WiFi 7, plenty of bandwidth.

 

[sharknice]

Apple isn't going to release crappy meta rayban style glasses that barely do anything and ruin their reputation for what they will eventually release which is Meta Orion style glasses. The reason they even have the Vision Pro is because it's a stepping stone to glasses tech like the Meta Orion. Apple needs to start building up their software and get developers to build apps for them. Calling the VP a "commerical failure" is missing the point. It didn't fail commercially, it never was supposed to be big. It's supposed to build hype and eventually the glasses style tech will get there. That's also why they did the screen on the outside with the person's eyes. They succesfully fooled he common person into thinking it's actually see through and not a screen like what their future glasses will be. Meta already has their stepping stone with the Quest, but it doubles as an actual consumer product.