Bloomberg: Apple scraps lightweight AR glasses and continues development of Vision Pro 2

Rumors have been circulating for months about Apple developing slim AR glasses in the style of the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. The glasses were intended to be so inconspicuous that users would be able to wear them around the clock. Apple was planning to use a wired connection to an iPhone instead of an integrated battery, thus enabling relatively strong processing power. In addition to speakers and microphones, the glasses were also supposed to have a display integrated into the lenses as an overlay that would provide relevant information on objects in the real world.

After early prototypes drained the battery of an iPhone too quickly, and the smartphone's processing power proved insufficient for many features, a model was developed that worked together with Macs. According to a new report from Bloomberg, these prototypes failed to convince Apple's management, so the project was finally discontinued this week. This setback for Apple's Vision Products Group, which is also responsible for the Vision Pro mixed reality headset, is said to have dampened the team's morale.

In the long term, Apple is reportedly hoping to launch AR glasses that ideally do not need to be connected to an iPhone or Mac. Development of some of the underlying technologies, such as the microLED panels for the lenses, is set to continue. Apple's Vision division is currently developing a successor to the Vision Pro as well as AirPods with integrated cameras, which may offer AR features and gesture control. Internally, however, Apple is still reportedly struggling with the lack of success of Vision Pro. While the high price is said to the be the cause of the sluggish sales, buyers are also not using their headset as often as Apple would like, so the company urgently needs to find new applications for Vision Pro.