Whereas Mark Zuckerberg and Meta press ahead with augmented glasses initiatives buoyed by its million-selling set of good Ray-Bans, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman says that Apple simply pulled the plug on an AR glasses mission. Codenamed N107, they’re described as one thing that might’ve seemed much like common glasses however with added shows within the lenses that would hook up with a Mac.
With options that sound much like units just like the Xreal One AR glasses, the glasses might’ve delivered on the Imaginative and prescient Professional function that’s closest to being any type of a killer app (popping up an enormous digital monitor anyplace) with out the $3,499 value and heavy design that required a head strap. The glasses additionally would’ve had tint-changing lenses that, just like the Imaginative and prescient Professional’s Eye Sight, might sign to onlookers whether or not the wearer was busy or not. Whereas different particulars are fuzzy, it doesn’t seem as if the N107 glasses would’ve had a digicam or any of the mixed-reality options of the Imaginative and prescient Professional.
An enormous drawback, in response to Gurman, was creating one thing that labored nicely whereas being cost-effective proved to be a problem. Apple initially wished the N107 to hook up with an iPhone, but it surely proved to be a battery-guzzler, and the iPhone itself didn’t have sufficient juice to energy the glasses — therefore the shift to a Mac. Sadly, that swap purportedly didn’t appear to go over nicely with executives in testing.
This most up-to-date cancellation places an enormous query mark over Apple’s future AR and XR plans. Apple purportedly canceled a separate AR glasses mission in 2023, and rumor has it that work on a Imaginative and prescient Professional 2 has been placed on maintain in favor of making an attempt to create a less expensive Imaginative and prescient Professional. In the meantime, the Imaginative and prescient Professional itself has struggled to discover a foothold.
