Apple’s future roadmap for wearables could include AI-powered smart glasses and AirPods with cameras, according to Mark Garman. power on newsletter Bloomberg. Both concepts are being explored internally at Apple, and are more indicative of the company’s future plans than discreet products.
He said smart glasses will be angled as a replacement for AirPods, with more sensors, AI capabilities and a longer-lasting battery. But even if they function as a cheaper head-worn gadget than the Vision Pro, they won’t be the high-quality transparent display AR face computer Apple is trying to achieve. Garman writes that these glasses would be a step in that direction, rather comparable to his Ray-Bans. The Meta Ray-Ban has an AI assistant that can talk to the camera, but it doesn’t have a display.
Last year, Apple also reportedly began considering AirPods with a camera, codenamed B798. If the company can pull it off, it would reportedly be about the same size as the latest AirPods, include a low-resolution camera, and combine with AI to help users with their daily tasks.
Apple is looking for ways to strengthen its wearables division as its existing products mature. Putting a camera in AirPods is clearly a novel idea and vaguely hints at Apple’s generative AI plans, but who knows? If you’re open to facing a computer, why not include an ear camera as well? Garman said that while the long-rumored idea of Apple’s smart ring still has a following in Cupertino, Apple is still actively developing something in the interesting but unproven category of wearables. He said that there was no such thing.
However, the company is working more on AR glasses. And now that Meta has established that attractive screenless smart glasses are possible, it makes sense that Apple will start down that path.
