Apple says it has been considering developing several new wearable devices over the years, including smart rings for health and fitness, smart glasses, and upgraded AirPods with built-in cameras and more sensors. bloombergI’m Mark Garman.
Samsung’s next Galaxy Ring
Below is a summary of what Gurman shared about these devices in his book. power on Today’s newsletter.
smart ring
A few years ago, Garman said, Apple’s industrial design team presented the idea of a “smart ring” focused on health and fitness features to executives on the company’s health team. However, he said Apple is not actively developing the finger-worn device at this time, so it is unclear whether it will ever be released.
Garman said the ring could be a low-cost alternative to the Apple Watch that can sync health and fitness data with a paired iPhone. This will compete with products like the Oura Ring and Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Ring.
smart glasses
It has long been rumored that Apple would eventually want to release advanced AR glasses based on the Vision Pro headset. Meanwhile, Garman said the company is considering developing “less ambitious” smart glasses that would compete with the likes of Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses and Amazon’s Echo Frame.
Garman said Apple is considering developing glasses that would be an “AirPods replacement” with built-in speakers, cameras, health sensors and AI capabilities. He said the glasses are still in the “technical research” stage within Apple’s hardware engineering department, so it’s likely they won’t be released for a while.
AirPods with camera
Last year, Apple engineers began looking at ways to incorporate lower-resolution camera sensors into AirPods, Garman said. He believes that if released, these AirPods could provide AI capabilities that “assist people in their daily lives.”
