Apple is actively exploring the smart glasses market, launching a project code-named Atlas as it prepares to enter the increasingly popular product category. According to people familiar with the matter, Apple is conducting internal research on existing products in the market and collecting employee feedback to guide future product development. The study, led by the Product Systems Quality team in Apple’s hardware engineering division, was designed to understand people’s needs and preferences for smart glasses.
Apple typically gathers feedback through secret focus groups when considering entering new areas, relying primarily on employees rather than customers to avoid leaks about its plans. The Atlas research suggests that Apple may design a simple pair of smart glasses similar to AirPods, with an integrated camera, Siri, and built-in speakers, and may even include health features. The glasses will be an upgraded version of AirPods, offering more features.
In the context of technology giants exploring the combination of AI and end products, smart glasses have become a wearable device with huge imagination space. Meta, Google, Microsoft and others are incorporating vision and language AI technology into smart glasses to unlock greater product potential. Apple is also facing challenges in this area, trying to develop a lightweight augmented reality device that can be worn throughout the day and potentially replace the iPhone. However, technical challenges have slowed the project down.
Apple’s Vision Pro headset due to high prices and lack of applications, weak demand, production significantly reduced, causing the market to worry about Apple’s future in the hybrid display field. At the same time, Meta preported its most advanced AI glasses, Orion, at Connect 2024 and announced new smart glasses in collaboration with Ray-Ban, which are well received for their clever design and functional features.
Apple’s smart glasses project is in its early stages and is expected to be years away from an actual product. Despite the challenges, Apple’s strengths in design, functionality and marketing could give it a foothold in the smart glasses market. With the advancement of the Atlas project, Apple is expected to bring innovation in this area and continue to lead the technology trend.