Tim Cook really wants Apple Glass to become a reality
The fabled Apple Glass continues to be in development, with augmented reality glasses still a top priority for CEO Tim Cook to produce.
Optimistic renders of what Apple Glass could look like - Image Credit: AppleInsider
Headset initiatives like the Apple Vision Pro are a gradual step towards smaller, lighter smart glasses that provide augmented reality experiences to the user. This future concept is rumored to be in development at Apple, under the name of Apple Glass.
While the Apple Vision Pro has had a relatively shaky start, CEO Tim Cook is still very much interested in producing Apple Glass. He's wanted the product to be created for over a decade.
In Sunday's newsletter for Bloomberg, sources of Mark Gurman say that Cook is doing what he can to get the smart glasses made. "Tim cares about noting else," one source claimed. "It's the only thing he's really spending his time on from a product development standpoint."
Tough Meta battle
It's become a top priority for Apple's engineers, all to try and outpace Meta in creating a category-leading device. Meta already leads in terms of headsets, but it's also taken first blood when it comes to smart glasses as well.
Meta already has a hit with its RayBan smart glasses, which are used for taking pictures and for AI purposes, but it's not the kind of smart glasses that Cook is keen on making. That would involve making something that can display AR images to the user, much like the Apple Vision Pro but in a much slimmer form.
Achieving a product like Apple Glass is an engineering nightmare for any company, let alone Apple, to produce. You're effectively trying to make a heads-up display that doesn't have the bulk of a headset, while still retaining the processing and audio capabilities.
Doing so requires some considerable miniaturization, careful designing, and offloading of elements to a host device if necessary. For example, using a nearby iPhone to handling processing and rendering duties to save from adding the weighty components and a hefty battery to the supposedly light headwear.
It is certainly a pet project for Cook that could give Apple a considerable lead in wearable electronics. That is, if it can pull the feat of engineering off before Meta does it.
Rumor Score: Possible
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Comments
Thank you for a refreshingly honest description.
In the meantime, he focuses on so quality overall, and _maybe_ takes more interest in what happens on the AI side of things within Apple, I just as an example.
Apart from AI-add-ons, I personally would welcome things like a real 5.1/7.1 good sounding HomePod audio system, a subscription service for books, finally blood pressure monitoring through the AW, and as Anton Ego said in Ratatoullie: “surprise me”. Like re-thinking the car, which may have been too big for them.
As for the repeatedly occurring reports on “unfriendly competing teams” I would like to hear more on Apple having a clear vision and strategy on the way forward, aligning the LS team.
Also, the technological challenges of AR glasses are much higher in terms of power efficiency, weight, and performance. My prescription eyeglasses weigh 30 grams and I still take them off from time to time to give my eyes, temples, ears, and face a rest.
I also own an Oculus Rift S HMD which is way lighter than the Apple Vision Pro and yet I can't wear the Oculus more than 40-45 minutes per sitting.
At least in 2025, it is extremely doubtful that Apple has access to technology that can be distributed on a wide scale at an reasonable price (i.e., not $3500) that can be crammed into eyeglasses weighing in at 50 grams or less. With useful battery performance, not something that needs to be recharged every two hours.
Note that Apple has committed to protecting privacy and data security. To achieve that they can't just send everything to the cloud (and there's latency involved with that anyhow). These smart wearable devices create special challenges for a privacy-focused company like Apple. For Alphabet and Meta, no problem, Google Glass and Meta Glass can upload everything to their servers because they're going to sell your activity behavior: that's their business model.
Being first to market is useless. The device needs to work considerably better than what is already out in the market.
Like the Vision Pro, really cool tech that doesn’t have a large market. and that is even because inevitably wearing these down the street you get bombarded with AR ads as you walk past every shop.
Doesn't anyone remember when Google Glass was being sold? There was no clear way for any random person to know whether or not the Google Glass user was recording video or not. In a short span of time, people were being asked to remove their Google Glass or were outright refused entry into some location (businesses, offices, etc.). Worse, some of the Google Glass wearers took issue with others rightfully concerned about privacy and insisted to wear the Google Glass which gave rise to the unfortunate yet accurate moniker "Glassh-les."
After a while, it was clear that some people automatically assumed that Google Glass was recording video in situations where there was no other obvious reason to be wearing AR glasses.
Even today in 2025 in some situations carrying around a smartphone or even leaving it on a table screen side down is still considered to be impolite or a possible privacy issue (you can record audio, maybe even video covertly).
Even once Google Glass became relegated for enterprise tasks it still had serious privacy concerns. One of my family's physicians asked if he could use it to transcribe appointment notes years before the pandemic. I suggested to the family member to decline. The doctor was silently yet visibly annoyed at the refusal.
Apple Glass -- like Google Glass before it -- and other AR glasses have some towering challenges concerning acceptance from the general public.
Just because the temple has a little Apple logo isn't going to assuage anyone's suspicions. Far from it.
It's not just the technical challenges at play here, it's also societal acceptance. Early adopters will have to be very careful when and how to use AR glasses. We've already seen this before and many users exercised extremely poor judgment.
Me thinks I would have actually seen one by now if it actually sold that many.
I believe there was a small red light active on the lens frame when the camera was active. Otherwise, you made a great post. No matter who makes such a device, there's going to be some suspicion cast its way. No level of privacy assurances will overcome it entirely.
+1
Luxottica (now EssilorLuxottica after a merger a few years ago) has a near-monopoly over the eyewear market and has near-monopoly pricing power because of it.
Luxottica rant aside… people are already used to paying WAY (!!!) too much for glasses. Paying way too much is all most of us glasses-wearers have ever known. Apple will be fine in that regard, lol.