Not long after Google’s reveal of its new AI-enhanced eyewear at its I/O event, a new report has suggested that Apple’s own entry into that increasingly crowded product field is coming next year at the earliest.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, in his regular Power On newsletter, has suggested that Apple’s glasses will require an additional year of development before they’re ready for primetime.
Apple’s smart glasses reportedly delayed
“There have been some bumps on the road to Apple becoming an eyewear giant,” Gurman said.
“It had initially planned to introduce its smart glasses, code-named N50, at the end of 2026 and ship them by early 2027.
“But as is often the case with major new Apple products, there have been delays. The company is now working toward launching the glasses at the end of next year, I’m told.”
One of the big pieces yet to fall into place for Apple’s renewed AI push has been Siri. The company's voice assistant/chatbot still feels woefully outdated and outgunned compared to Gemini. Siri currently taps into ChatGPT, but is expected to leverage more of Gemini in the coming months, with Gurman confirming its overhaul is still expected in 2026.
Still, Gurman also expects that the N50 glasses will move in a similar fashion to the Apple Watch by adding health tracking features in time.
“The first Apple glasses will use design elements to stand out, with oval-shaped cameras, unique colors, and multiple frame styles,” he reports.
“Over time, Apple believes the glasses could evolve into a health device and eventually incorporate augmented reality technologies capable of improving how people see.”
Vision Air is not coming soon
Of course, the other side of Apple’s eyewear business is still wholly focused on Vision Pro at present, the expensive headset that offers “spatial computing”.
The system is $3,499, and adoption has been relatively slow, with speculation rife that a ‘Vision Air’ could offer a slimmer feature set at a lower price. Gurman, however, doesn’t think it’s coming anytime soon.
“Apple has also been working on a slimmer and lighter headset to succeed the $3,499 Vision Pro, but I don’t anticipate that to launch before late 2028 or 2029,” he suggested.
“Apple needs to fix the design and pricing problems that turned the first Vision Pro into a flop, and that category will essentially be on ice until then.”
That would also suggest that the M5-toting version of the Vision Pro is essentially as good as it’ll get until then.
