Apple fast-tracks its smart glasses for 2026 launch

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Apple wants to release its first entry in the emerging smart glasses category in 2026, according to information leaking out of the company Thursday. That’s a more aggressive launch window than previously rumored.

The AI-powered device reportedly will be able to handle many of the tasks people turn to an iPhone for now, and compete with the popular Ray-Ban Meta Glasses.

2026 could bring first Apple glasses to market

While we adore our iPhones, the downside is that we have to pull them out of our pockets to check them or walk around hunched over a phone. And they require a free hand.

But smart glasses are always in front of our eyes and are hands-free. Their problem is that the technology to make them really useful is still in development. Cramming a powerful computer into something as small as eyeglasses poses a serious technological challenge.

But it’s a challenge Apple has reportedly taken up, and the company is moving aggressively. It now plans to have its first smart glasses on the market by the end of 2026, according to an unconfirmed report from Bloomberg. Previously rumors indicated that the chip to go into the product wouldn’t even be ready until at least that time.

The rumored feature set takes advantage of Apple’s work on artificial intelligence,  including Visual Intelligence.

“Apple’s glasses would have cameras, microphones and speakers, allowing them to analyze the external world and take requests via the Siri voice assistant. They could also handle tasks such as phone calls, music playback, live translations and turn-by-turn directions,” said Bloomberg.

Many questions remain

It’s not yet clear whether the first-generation Apple glasses will have a screen. They could be entirely voice-controlled, which would reduce the cost and weight while increasing battery life. The first generation of the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses attracted plenty of buyers without a display. But a version with a screen supposedly will launch later this year.

Cupertino supposedly plans to build its smart glasses around a simplified version of the chip now used in Apple Watch. That will limit its capabilities but lengthen its battery life.

Also unknown is the price. Ray-Ban Meta Glasses go for just $299, but the upcoming version with a screen could cost as much as $1,400. Which end of the scale Apple’s version ends up on depends heavily on its feature set, of course.

Not Apple’s original plan

While developing its Vision Pro AR headset, Apple hoped technological improvements would allow successive models to shrink in size until the product eventually evolved into lightweight smart glasses with powerful augmented reality capabilities. But the pace of technology development isn’t keeping up with Apple’s hopes, and it’ll be many years before it can release a Vision headset that resembles ordinary glasses.

As a result, the company reportedly began exploring another option: relatively simple smart glasses. It could bring these to market much sooner.

Nevertheless, don’t take this as a sign that Apple dropped development on future iterations of the Vision Pro. The company reportedly is working on both product lines. The plan seems to be to make the powerful but bulky Vision Pro smaller and more affordable while simultaneously taking simple smart glasses and adding functionality. They likely will meet in the middle somewhere down the line.