Apple kills off plans to build AR glasses, will leave the AR glasses market to Meta

Apple has reportedly axed plans to build advanced AR glasses that would've paired with the iPhone and Mac, adding another notch to the company's headset failures in a post-Vision Pro headset world.

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In a new report from Mark Gurman on Bloomberg, Apple shuttered the program this week, with the "now-canceled product would have looked like normal glasses but include built-in displays and require a connection to a Mac, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the work wasn't public. An Apple representative declined to comment".

Apple launched its expensive, controversial Vision Pro headset for $3499 to not-so-great headlines, hoping to make a headset that everyday users could use, with a cheaper price tag. Meta has been selling its Ray-Ban smart glasses, with the company moving into a version that adds AR (augmented reality) and will reportedly have AR glasses on the market by 2027, which is when Apple had expected to launch its codenamed N107 headset.

• Read more: Apple could launch a pair of AR glasses connected directly to the iPhone
• Read more: Apple rumor: AirPods with cameras in 2027: smart glasses to compete with Meta Ray-Bans

Gurman explains: "The decision to wind down work on the N107 product followed an attempt to revamp the design. The company had initially wanted the glasses to pair with an iPhone, but it ran into problems over how much processing power the handset could provide. It also affected the iPhone's battery life. So the company shifted to an approach that required linking up with a Mac computer, which has faster processors and bigger batteries".

"But the Mac-connected product performed poorly during reviews with executives, and the desired features continued to change. Members of Apple's Vision Products Group, which worked on the device, grew increasingly concerned that the project was on the rocks. Sure enough, the final word came this week that the effort was over".