claims<\/a> that Apple plans to disrupt the smart glasses market similarly to what it did previously in watches. But we won\u2019t see the first Apple smart watch until at least late 2027, later than originally expected.<\/p>\nThis could be lucrative for Apple, despite its stumbles with the bulky and overly-expensive VisionPro headset that\u2019s essentially the foundation for this new work: As Gurman notes, there are 2.2 billion people worldwide with some form of vision impairment, and the eyewear market is worth $200 billion annually, with hundreds of millions of glasses sold each year. If Apple can snag even a small percentage of share, this could be worth more than the estimated $17 billion in revenues that the Apple Watch delivers.<\/p>\n
Gurman says that the target this time is two-fold and includes Meta and, soon, Samsung\/Google, but also mainstream, non-smart eyewear that sells from $200 to $500, a market that\u2019s currently dominated by familiar brands like Ray-Ban, Oakley, Hugo Boss, and others. Apple\u2019s approach will be familiar, with the company counting on its brand, industrial design, and deep iPhone integration to drive sales. Plus, Apple Intelligence AI capabilities, which are still largely unfulfilled when compared to the original 2024 promises.<\/p>\n
The first Apple glasses will allegedly feature oval-shaped cameras and come in unique colors and multiple frame styles. Long-term, however, the company plans to evolve this product with health features, as it did with Apple Watch, and then add augmented reality (AR) functionality similar to Vision Pro. But Gurman doesn\u2019t expect \u201ctrue AR glasses\u201d before the end of the decade, similar to the timeframe for a second-generation slimmer and lighter Vision Pro.<\/p>\n
Gurman claims that Apple will be a \u201cmajor force\u201d in both glasses and sunglasses and that its entry into this market will \u201cfundamentally alter how consumers think about buying glasses.\u201d The issue? This fantasy won\u2019t become a reality until late 2027, though Apple had originally hoped to ship its first glasses, codenamed N50, by the end of 2026. And even that might be generous, as the late 2027 schedule is for a launch, not a release.<\/p>\n
Whatever the timing\u2013I think we can safely blame Apple\u2019s Siri and Apple Intelligence issues on at least some of the delays\u2013it\u2019s obvious that this is a market Apple could do well in: It\u2019s more a lifestyle brand than a technology company these days, and billions of people buy glasses, many as fashion accessories. It\u2019s certainly a better fit for this market, ahem, than Meta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest report from Bloomberg analyst Mark Gurman claims that Apple plans to disrupt the smart glasses market…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[742,22975,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-454333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ar","tag-augmented-reality","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Apple](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/apple-earnings.jpg\")
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