:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-2202870885-3426bffaae8640b3b278d81292c387fe.jpg "It’s Not Just Meta That Thinks AI Can Jumpstart Smart Glasses. Apple’s In Too.")
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Key Takeaways
- Apple is accelerating its focus on the development of smart glasses as it looks to compete with Meta Platform’s Ray-Ban Display, Bloomberg reported.
- Apple has some time, given that the Display can strain the eyes and is not yet suitable for everyday use, Oppenheimer analysts said.
Tech giants want more face time with us. Literally.
Apple (AAPL) is racing to release smart glasses that rival those of Meta Platforms (META) and gain ground in a device category that they see becoming a vital AI access point. The company last week froze work on its latest headset to free up resources for the development of smart glasses, Bloomberg reported.
The tech giant wants to fast-track its answer to Meta Ray-Ban Display, $800 smart glasses with a screen in the right lens, the report said. (Apple didn’t respond to Investopedia’s request for confirmation.) Competitors like Samsung and Amazon (AMZN) are also expected to launch smart glasses.
It’s a small category—under 3 mlllion units sold a year, IDC recently said, and not seen reaching 20 million until 2029—especially when compared with smartphones, sales of which are counted in the billions. But AI could energize that; by 2027, Apple envisions producing glasses that have their own display and incorporate speakers, cameras, voice-controlled features, AI and, potentially, health-tracking tools, according to Bloomberg.
Why This News Matters to Investors
Tech companies have poured billions into AI and are now trying to convince companies and consumers to pay for related products and services. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees smart glasses as the best way to bring AI to consumers, and Apple appears to be thinking that way, too.
That timeline bodes well for Apple, Oppenheimer said. Its analysts left a Meta demo convinced that “Apple’s hardware ecosystem is safe from new AI-enabled smart glasses for the next 2-3 years.”
The Display breaks “new ground in the consumer wearable experience,” Oppenheimer wrote Thursday. “But it’s too early to view Ray-Ban Display as an everyday wearable such as Apple Watch, let alone a potential challenger for smartphones.”
Users’ eyes strain and their vision blurs if they look at the glasses screen “for more than seconds,” the analysts said, making Display a poor tool for viewing video or longer text. Meta didn’t respond to Investopedia’s request for comment.
Meta, like Apple, has pivoted its focus away from headsets. Virtual- and mixed-reality headsets have generally struggled to take off because people view them as expensive, heavy, or uncomfortable, according to a Gizmodo story.
