Technological companies like Apple, Google and Meta want intelligent and AR glasses as omnipresent and essential as smartphones. Arriving it will be a challenge, but suppose they can. If the biggest technological brands buy and go to war against smart glasses, it will be much more amusing Technological battle to monitor only other.
Bloomberg Mark Gurman Note that Apple CEO, Tim Cook, wants to make AR apple glasses the company’s “absolute priority”, so that they can beat Meta to punch. Apple will focus first on “non -holographic glasses with cameras and microphones” to challenge meta rays in the short term, then move their attention to real mixed reality.
This is a sudden change compared to the moment when Gurman said that Apple had canceled his prototype of AR glasses in February because the leaders were not impressed by their attached design of MacBook.
I raise it as a reminder that Cook desire The real wireless apple glasses do not mean that his business will release them soon. And Mark Zuckerberg, who wants “billions of AI” glasses in the world in a decade, is just as passionate to beat Apple.
I am less concerned about A Brand making AR glasses and more interested in seeing a good for everyone between major technological brands. For what? Because smart glasses can’t Be boring in the same way as other technological gadgets are, or they will never take off.
Why will intelligent glasses be more fun than other technologies
I do not expect the glasses to strike the dominant current for years. In the short term, we should see more intelligent glasses like meta-rays with cameras and intelligences of AI. And there is a reason why these rays of rays have sold so well: because Meta has left the design to someone else.
Each non -foldable smartphone looks like an identical thick slab, and updates like Android 16 consist more of refining and optimizing a well -oiled machine, while iOS generally does its own turn on what Android has done before.
The glasses must be different. It is not something that you can hide in a pocket or remove if it starts to feel too heavy; You wear them 16 hours a day, and they will define the first visual impression that people have of you. And for software, these companies will have to develop innovative control patterns and improve AI assistants to work.
Meta knew that the Ray-Ban and Oakley intelligent glasses would work better than anything that its engineers had done because well-established brands could respond to traditional aesthetics and trends. And it added Meta Ai to the glasses that brought out the rays of rays.
If I know Apple, he will try to remove a unique intelligent glasses look which, like the Apple Watch squirt, redefines what is acceptable in the portable style, but always works for “regular” people. Meta took the opposite route, offering a variety of styles to call on the widest group of people; If Google and Samsung are intelligent, they will do the same.
Imagine a future where smart glasses even have a fraction of the styles you would see in a Lenscrafters or Warby Parker. You want Samsung glasses, but it’s up to you to decide that you buy Samsung Burberry, Samsung Oakley or Samsung Gucci.
That It seems more fun than trying to claim that an Android phone or an iPhone slab is so different from another. Instead of pro almost identical and ultra combines, you will get a variety of looks that appeal to almost anyone.
We still need evidence that the Glasses will “work”
Meta Orion is an excellent example of the reason why I am enthusiastic And skeptical on AR glasses.
Meta has spent tens of billions of dollars in XR R&D in recent years. The end result is Orion, which has a wireless design and without controller.
The wireless computer washer and personalized low -power silicon guarantee that it does not live and does not drain the battery of your phone, while the neuronal band SEMG gives you a vital and precise alternative to voice commands.
Meta Orion also weighs too much (almost 100 g), has visual limitations and would cost about $ 10,000 each to be won. Glasses do not go out before 2027, and only for developers because they are not ready for consumers.
Meanwhile, Meta will develop Hypernova AR glasses with a monocular display, which should cost $ 1,000 to $ 1,400. However, it is always expensive for an accessory, and I suppose they have downgraded the field of vision (FOV), the battery life or resolution compared to Orion.
Then there is Google and the Android XR partnership of Samsung. Google built the software and the gemini AI necessary for the operation of AR glasses, and it recently presented its XR glasses at a TED conference.
These glasses seem quite normal from a distance, although they may seem a little thick in the temples. However, we still do not know how much they will cost, how long they will last, or if people will want a device that can only be controlled with gemini voice commands. And it seems that these glasses are based on telephone computer, which burns that Battery too.
Apple’s original AR prototype would have relied on an iPhone connection, but energy requests led them to go to a MacBook. Whatever try then, Apple will have to overcome the same difficulties as its rivals – and prove that the Apple Intelligence can follow the Gemini and Meta Ai as a portable assistant.
Will this war be on a uniform playground?
It could take a long time from Apple to remove the AR glasses that Tim Cook wants, which reach the perfect balance, power, functionality and longevity. Just as intelligent rings cannot blend like “normal” jewelry, AR glasses will probably remain thick and obvious gadgets for a long time.
Once they have erased that Hurdle, Apple and Google will take old decade applications and redefine them for this new factor of form, which will be exciting or a disaster. They will also have the advantage of blocking companies like Meta accessing their telephone applications – unless the EU intervenes.
Apple dominates the iPhone ecosystem by blocking third -party accessories such as watches and glasses by offering messaging or communicating with telephone applications. But the EU DMA judged that Apple had to open its system.
If Apple lawyers cannot get rid of this, it will force the war of smart glasses on a uniform playground. And that, more than anything else, will force Apple and its rivals to compete in style, variety and recognition of names, as much as intelligence. And it’s going to be very fun to watch.
