Apple's First Smart Glasses Will Skip AR, Bloomberg Reports
Apple's first smart glasses will not include augmented reality (AR) features, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, as reported by The Verge. The prototypes, codenamed N50, are a narrower device than the display-first wearables the category has been built around, and the reporting describes a product that depends on a companion iPhone.
The software and silicon fit that scope. N50 prototypes run a pared-down version of visionOS, Apple's operating system for its headset, and use a new processor derived from Apple's older smartwatch chips. The glasses include Wi-Fi, which lets certain functions outside third-party apps work when the iPhone is not nearby. They will not operate as a fully independent device, however, and rely on an iPhone for many tasks.
Audio is the most developed part of the feature set, according to the report. The glasses support phone calls, music playback and FaceTime audio. Apple employees have described the sound quality as industry-leading.
The charging arrangement is also specific. The prototypes use a MagSafe-style magnetic charger, similar to the one Apple uses on iPhones. It is flat, rectangular and roughly the size of a Tic Tac, and it can be used while the glasses are still being worn.
On timing, Gurman reports that Apple will announce its first smart glasses at WWDC, its annual developer conference, next June. Shipments would begin before the end of the year, roughly six months after the unveiling. Neither event has taken place yet.
In my view, the decision to leave out AR is the most telling detail here. A glasses product that offloads computation to the iPhone, runs a trimmed operating system on a watch-class processor and concentrates on audio, calls and playback is deliberately constrained. It asks less of the battery and the thermal envelope, the limit on how much heat the device can shed, and in exchange it asks the user to accept fewer capabilities.
The broader context here is that an audio-first, phone-tethered design sits closer to ambient computing, where software fades into the background of daily life, than to the headset model. The open question for developers and enterprise buyers is how much value sits in the always-on functions that Wi-Fi enables outside apps, and how much in the apps Apple chooses to allow on top. Those answers will determine whether the glasses become a new surface for voice assistants, calls and media, or remain an accessory to the iPhone. The announcement and the first shipments will supply them.
