Apple reportedly planning to launch smart glasses in late 2026 – SiliconANGLE

Apple Inc. plans to expand its consumer electronics lineup next year with artificial intelligence smart glasses, Bloomberg reported today.

The device will compete with Meta Platforms Inc.’s Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The latter product series provides music playback, calling, live translation and navigation features. Apple’s upcoming spectacles will reportedly provide many of the same capabilities.

The device is reportedly being developed by the business unit that created the Vision Pro headset. The latter gadget, which starts at $3,500, combines the M2 chip that powered Apple’s 2022 MacBook Air with a multimedia coprocessor. The iPhone maker’s smart glasses are reportedly based on a more lightweight design.

The device is expected to ship with a chip derived from the processors that power the Apple Watch series. Those processors use considerably less power than the M2. The system-on-chip in the newest Apple Watches, the S10 SiP, features a dual-core central processing unit and a quad-core AI accelerator.

The processor in Apple’s smart glasses will reportedly remove some of the S10 SiP’s components to further boost power efficiency. The scrapped components likely include those that power the Apple Watch’s wellness monitoring sensors. Several of those sensors only work if they’re placed on the user’s wrist, which rules out their use in smart glasses.

Apple’s smart glasses chip will reportedly be optimized to control multiple cameras. The latest Ray-Ban Meta glasses have one camera on each lens. Bloomberg cited a source as saying that Apple’s device will be similar to the Ray-Ban Meta series but “better made,” which hints that there may be more cameras or higher-resolution lenses.

Apple engineers are said to be “ramping up” work on the glasses ahead of their launch. The iPhone maker is expected to start producing large quantities of prototypes later this year. Apple reportedly plans to launch the glasses at the end of 2026, but Bloomberg’s sources cautioned that the project could still be scrapped.

Another one of the company’s internal development programs was reportedly canceled earlier this week. It’s believed that Apple has abandoned an effort to develop a version of the Apple Watch with cameras. The company has reportedly not scrapped a parallel initiative to develop a camera-equipped edition of its AirPods wireless earbuds.

Meta, for its part, is expected to launch an upgraded version of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses in 2027. The device is set to ship with a display that will allow users to perform tasks such as reading notifications. In the long term, Apple reportedly also plans to launch display-equipped smart glasses with the goal of using the screen to provide augmented reality features.

Photo: Andrew/Flickr