Many reports have suggested that Apple may be having second thoughts about the development of Augmented Reality headsets.
Apple has halted works on AR smart glasses for the time being. The works on these glasses have been live for some years now and it was supposed to be unveiled around 2021. According to Tim Cook, Apple has been interested in developing Augmented Reality devices for long and it has grabbed much more attention at Apple than Virtual Reality ever could. Virtual Reality creates a whole new world of its own while in Augmented Reality, some augmentations are added to our real world. Pokemon Go is one example of Augmented Reality.
Hundreds were employed in this project by Apple to create its AR headset but that has changed now. In original plans, these glasses or headset were supposed to look like Google Glasses. Google Glasses were unveiled back in 2013. It wasn’t such a success as the look was termed unusual by many. This wasn’t obviously the only reason behind these Glasses failure as it also had some safety and privacy issues. Subsequently it was reported that Apple’s go at this project would end up looking more like the usual glasses.
These glasses were supposed to connect to the smartphones of the wearer initially and perform tasks like showing graphics, images, videos and other data within the field of sight of the wearer. But the possibility can not be ruled out entirely that these glasses would go on to become a separate product of their own, independent of any other device. Much like smartwatches, these devices will have all the basic functionality like fitness and health tracking and may be even the potential to replace smartphones in some basic features and functionalities. Now it is yet to be seen when will Apple feel like exploring this side of things.