Apple may be interested in developing products to benchmark Meta's Ray Ban smart glasses.
On November 4th local time, well-known technology journalist Mark Gurman revealed that Apple is exploring entering the smart glasses market and is internally researching related products in the market.
According to insiders, Apple launched a program codenamed Atlas last week aimed at collecting feedback from Apple employees on smart glasses. Insiders say they plan to organize more focus group discussions in the near future. These studies are led by the Product System Quality team of Apple's Hardware Engineering department.
In an email sent to some employees at the company headquarters, the group wrote, "Testing and developing products that everyone will love is very important for Apple. We are looking for participants to join our upcoming user research on smart glasses in the current market
Gulman introduced that when Apple considers whether to enter a new field, it usually secretly organizes focus groups to understand people's preferences for existing products. The company usually relies on employees rather than customers to avoid its plans being leaked.
Some analysts believe that Apple may design a simple pair of glasses equipped with a camera, Siri integration, and built-in speakers for listening to music, and may also include health features. This pair of glasses is essentially an upgraded version of AirPods earphones with more features.
After the outbreak of generative AI, technology giants continue to explore ways to combine terminal products with AI in order to unleash greater product potential. Wearable devices are the hardware with the largest imagination space. Leading companies in the AI field such as Meta, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, etc. are trying to integrate their visual and language related AI technologies into smart glasses and other wearable devices with cameras.
For Apple and many technology companies, creating a successful facial wearable device has always been a huge challenge. For many years, Apple has been trying to create a lighter augmented reality device that can be worn all day and may replace the iPhone. Due to numerous technical challenges, the progress of this project is slow.
At the beginning of 2024, Apple's Vision Pro was officially sold to the public at a price of up to $3499 (starting at 29999 yuan in China). The first Vision Pro had weak demand due to its high price and lack of available applications.
Recently, Silicon Valley technology media The Information reported that Apple has significantly reduced the production of its Vision Pro mixed reality headset since early summer of this year and may completely cease production of existing versions of the device by the end of this year. This news has attracted widespread attention in the market, which is full of concerns and doubts about Apple's future in the field of hybrid displays.
According to previous reports from foreign media, Apple has been considering entering the smart glasses market and may challenge the collaboration between social media giant Facebook parent company Meta and Ray Ban on smart glasses. However, Gulman believes that the actual product will take several years to come out.
On September 25th local time, Meta announced at the Connect 2024 developer conference that Orion, known as the "most advanced AI glasses to date" and the Nazare smart glasses project announced by Zuckerberg in 2021, will be launched in the future. At present, Orion is only a prototype product, producing only about 1000 pairs and will not be sold to consumers in the short term. But Meta said that as the company continues to work hard, Orion will eventually go public.
In addition, Meta announced their hottest second-generation AI glasses of the year - the new Ray Ban smart glasses launched together with Ray Ban. This AI glasses is currently known as one of the best-selling hardware products in the AI field, with an expected shipment volume of over 2 million units this year and orders continuing to increase.
Ray Ban Meta Wayfarer
Unlike Vision Pro, Meta's Ray Ban smart glasses are not complicated and have not attempted to become a true augmented reality device. But due to its combination of exquisite design, practical features, and effective marketing, the product has been favored by consumers - and these are exactly the areas where Apple usually excels. Even some comments suggest that Meta's Ray Ban smart glasses should have been Apple's product and could have seamlessly integrated into Apple's wearable product line.