The long-fabled Apple Glasses just hit a major milestone, with DigiTimes reporting that its moved into the second phase of development. This new stage is focused on battery life and weight, both of which are going to be crucial if a future release is to succeed.
We’re still a way off from seeing the Apple Glasses at your nearest Apple Store, however. DigiTimes’ report claims that the next stage is to create a final design prototype, after which the glasses will need to go through six-to-nine months of thorough testing. Only then can it go into mass production.
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We don’t know a great deal about the Apple Glasses at this point, but it’s long been assumed that it will be augmented reality glasses rather than the more common virtual reality. Apple apparently has an interest in VR as well, but we’ve already seen that those headsets are much bigger and bulkier than even the largest pair of glasses.
According to reports, Apple Glasses will connect to your phone and present you all the things you’d normally look at your phone for. Text messages, emails, maps, games, and more, all directly in front of your eyes instead of on the hi-tech rectangle you’d normally have to pick up and poke.
Third parties should also be able to launch dedicated apps for Apple Glasses, much like how you can get optimized versions of popular apps on the Apple Watch and Apple TV.
We shouldn’t expect the Apple Glasses to be arriving anytime soon, though. Reputed Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo has predicted Apple’s first AR device will arrive later this year, but it doesn’t seem likely that they will be the Apple Glasses people have been hoping for.
Past reports from Kuo and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman have suggested a 2022 or 2023 release date for the specs, which fits with the information from DigiTimes. After accounting for testing and production time, Apple would have to have a final design prototype ready right now if it wanted to hit a late 2021 launch window.
Of course, known Apple leaker Jon Prosser has been adamant that it'll arrive sometime in mid-2021. However, that doesn’t seem likely given the latest information, unless we’re talking about different devices.
However long it takes to arrive, it’s clear that Apple is making progress on the Apple Glasses. We’re just going to have to continue being patient for now, and wait to see what happens over the next couple of years.
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