Sources: Apple is testing four AI glasses designs with rectangular and oval frames, multiple colors, and a camera system with vertically oriented oval lenses
Also: The latest on the foldable iPhone. — Apple is working on several frame styles and a unique camera design for its first smart glasses.
BloombergMark Gurman
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple’s glasses work has repeatedly spanned divergent product concepts, from earlier prototypes that included both an autonomous AR headset and a phone-connected, screenless device to February reports of a broader camera-and-Siri wearable push across glasses, AirPods and a pendant. The new frame testing is a more concrete sign that Apple is evaluating how a glasses product could be made wearable as an everyday accessory.
The emphasis on multiple frame shapes, colors and a distinctive camera layout suggests that industrial design is becoming a central constraint alongside AI features. That fits the wider reported testing of several AI-glasses designs, rather than a single settled product configuration.
First-order effects
Apple’s hardware and design teams must narrow competing frame, fit, color and camera choices before a consumer glasses product can move beyond experimentation.
A camera-equipped glasses concept puts privacy signaling and the physical visibility of sensors at the center of product design, not merely software functionality.
Second-order effects
Suppliers of compact cameras, lenses, batteries and frame components would need to accommodate fashion-led variation as well as wearable-device engineering requirements if Apple advances multiple styles.
Rival AI-wearable makers face added pressure to make camera-enabled devices socially acceptable and visually differentiated, rather than competing only on assistant capabilities.
Third-order effects
If screenless or camera-first glasses gain traction, AI hardware competition may shift toward ambient, body-worn interfaces that complement the smartphone rather than replace it.
The category’s ceiling will depend on whether companies can reconcile always-available sensing with durable privacy norms; distinctive camera hardware may make that trade-off more visible to users and regulators.
The trend: AI device makers are increasingly treating wearables as the next interface for context-aware assistants, with industrial design and trust becoming as consequential as model quality.
People underestimate the amount of tech Meta was able to fit in those small glasses. I am not saying Apple can't close the gap, but it won't be easy. By the time they get there, Meta will already be a few steps ahead. the only question is if people actually want this or not.
Imho the thing missing is a native “mode” that physically covers and disables the camera optics in a way that makes it obvious to others that no recording is happening. Also a feature that bricks the device if anyone tampers with live recording indicators. Protecting public pri…
Apple testing multiple smart glasses styles is interesting, but I hope it is also studying Meta's new Optics range closely. For all-day prescription wearers, fit, adjustment and optician support are not nice extras. They are the product. Fit struggles kill sales.
“Consumers don't want this,” one of the repies to @markgurman said this morning in response to his post about Apple's glasses plans. Now this is something I've actually studied deeply, doing consumer research in many places around the world while writing two books about spatial …
I would think Apple will follow a similar approach to Watch. Glasses are even more personal both in style and fit so the only way to build a sizable base is to have multiple designs
Apple just mass-shelved a $3,500 headset, dissolved the entire team that built it, and is now building glasses that do less than Meta's $299 Ray-Bans...Meta built a standalone product. Apple is building a retention moat you wear on your face 16 hours a day.
Power On: Apple's upcoming AI smart glasses will come in several styles and colors - and the company is testing a unique vertical oval camera design. The latest on Apple's next major product. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Apple is releasing AI smart glasses to take on Meta Ray Bans. It will be a more luxury product with key differentiations...fully in-house (Meta works with EssilorLuxxottica, Google with Warbus Parker and Gentle Monster)
i'd say apple is more bothered that they don't have any ideas any more. they really haven't been bad actors for privacy. but they literally have no clue what people want or what matters any more, so they just copy with no strategy. and it's offensive on multiple (but different…
you'd think they'd learn from the colossal failure of the goggles, which made so little impact i had to think really hard to remember the name (vision pro)