Meta is having a moment with its Ray-Ban smart glasses, but Apple is well-positioned to leverage its existing lineup to dominate the space. Here’s what that might look like.
Smart glasses are having a moment, thanks to the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, and Apple appears poised to jump in with its own version.
Apple is famously averse to releasing products just because they’re trendy; the Vision Pro hit the market years after rival headsets, for example. But it needs a new hit, and a stripped-down wearable may be its next big thing.
We’ve heard this before; most recently, reports about Apple smart glasses cropped up in February, and Apple has reportedly struggled to create a product that’s technically up to snuff. But according to Bloomberg, the company is now asking select employees to join «an upcoming user study with current market smart glasses» to see how best to make the technology work for its customers.
Apple is well-positioned to make this kind of product. It produces earbuds, smartwatches, and Apple Intelligence, along with its own PC and smartphone chips. But what would its smart glasses look like, and can they compete with Meta?Imagining the Apple Smart Glasses
Based on the last decade of Apple products, from the iPhone and Apple Watch to the Vision Pro, it’s easy to imagine what «Apple Glasses» might look like. I’m thinking glossy white with sleeker-than-necessary stems connected to a well-contoured and modern frame housing multiple cameras for spatial video and photo capture.
Meta has already tied up eyewear giant and Ray-Ban parent company EssilorLuxottica for the next 10 years, so Apple may have to do most of the design-related heavy lifting on its own. Or perhaps it will commission the services of an old friend: Jony Ive. As Patently Apple reports, the US Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple in September that brings the Vision Pro’s EyeSight feature to future smart glasses. The inventor on the patent? None other than Ive, Apple’s former chief design officer who now has his own design firm.
