Tech companies like Apple, Google, and Meta want smart and AR glasses to become as ubiquitous and essential as smartphones. Pulling that off will be a challenge, but let’s assume they can. If the biggest tech brands all buy in and go to war over smart glasses, it’ll be a much more fun tech battle to watch than any other.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple CEO Tim Cook wants to make Apple AR glasses the company’s “top priority,” so they can beat Meta to the punch. Apple will focus first on non-holographic “glasses with cameras and microphones” to challenge Meta’s Ray-Bans in the short term, then shift their attention to true mixed reality.
It’s a sudden shift from when Gurman claimed Apple canceled its AR glasses prototype in February because executives weren’t impressed with their MacBook-tethered design.
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I bring this up as a reminder that Cook’s desire for true wireless Apple Glasses doesn’t mean his company will release them anytime soon. And Mark Zuckerberg, who wants “billions of AI glasses” worldwide in a decade, is just as passionate about beating Apple.
I’m less concerned about one brand pulling off AR glasses and more interested in seeing a proper free-for-all between the Big Tech brands. Why? Because smart glasses can’t be boring the same way other tech gadgets are, or they’ll never take off.
Why smart glasses will be more fun than other tech
(Image credit: Michael Hicks / Android Central)
I don’t expect AR glasses to hit the mainstream for years. In the short term, we should see more smart glasses like Meta Ray-Bans with cameras and AI smarts. And there’s a reason why these Ray-Bans have sold so well: because Meta left the design to someone else.
Every non-foldable smartphone looks like an identical thick slab, and updates like Android 16 are more about tweaking and optimizing a well-oiled machine, while iOS typically does its own spin on what Android has done before.
Glasses have to be different. It’s not something you can hide in a pocket or take off if it starts to feel too heavy; you wear them 16 hours a day, and they’ll define the first visual impression people have of you. And for software, these companies will have to develop innovative control schemes and improved AI assistants for them to work.
Meta knew that Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses would perform better than anything its engineers had made because well-established brands could cater to mainstream aesthetics and trends. And it was adding Meta AI to the glasses that made the Ray-Bans really stand out.
Meta’s Super Bowl commercial was about making its smart glasses look glamorous (Image credit: Meta)
If I know Apple, it’ll try to pull off a unique smart glasses look that, like the Apple Watch squircle, redefines what’s acceptable in wearable style, but still work for “regular” people. Meta has taken the opposite route, offering a variety of styles to appeal to the widest group of people; if Google and Samsung are smart, they’ll do the same.
Imagine a future where smart glasses have even a fraction of the styles you’d see in a LensCrafters or Warby Parker. You want Samsung Glasses, but it’s up to you whether you buy Samsung Burberry, Samsung Oakley, or Samsung Gucci.
That sounds more fun to me than trying to pretend that one Android phone or iPhone slab looks that different from another. Instead of near-identical Pro and Ultra handsets, you’d get a variety of looks that appeal to almost anyone.
We still need proof that AR glasses will ‘work’
Meta Orion AR glasses (Image credit: Meta)
Meta Orion is a great example of why I’m enthusiastic and skeptical about AR glasses.
Meta has spent tens of billions of dollars on XR R&D over the last few years. The end result is Orion, which has a wireless, no-controller design.
The wireless computing puck and low-power custom silicon ensure it doesn’t tether to and drain your phone battery, while the sEMG neural band gives you a vital and accurate alternative to voice commands.
Meta Orion also weighs too much (almost 100g), has visual limitations, and reportedly costs about $10,000 each to make. The glasses aren’t coming out until 2027, and only to developers because they’re not consumer-ready.
Google’s XR glasses look relatively “normal” (Image credit: Gilberto Tadday / TED)
In the meantime, Meta is reportedly developing Hypernova AR glasses with a monocular display, which are expected to cost around $1,000–$1,400. However, that’s still expensive for an accessory, and I assume they’ve downgraded the field of view (FoV), battery life, or resolution compared to Orion.
Then there is Google and Samsung’s Android XR partnership. Google built the software and Gemini AI necessary for AR glasses to work, and it recently exhibited its XR glasses at a TED Talk.
These glasses appear fairly normal from a distance, although they may seem a bit thick in the temples. However, we still don’t know how much they’ll cost, how long they’ll last, or whether people will want a device that can only be controlled with Gemini voice commands. And it appears that these glasses rely on phone computing, which burns through that battery too.
Apple’s original AR prototype allegedly relied on an iPhone connection, but power demands led them to switch to a MacBook. Whatever they try next, Apple will have to overcome the same struggles as its rivals — and prove that Apple Intelligence can keep up with Gemini and Meta AI as a portable assistant.
Will this war be on an even playing field?
AR glasses don’t blend in yet, because the focus is on making them work (Image credit: Meta)
It could take a long time for Apple to pull off the AR glasses that Tim Cook wants, that hit the perfect balance of style, power, features, and longevity. Just like smart rings can’t blend in as “normal” jewelry, AR glasses will likely remain thick, obvious gadgets for a long time.
Once they clear that hurdle, Apple and Google will take decade-old apps and redefine them for this new form factor, which will either be exciting or a disaster. They’ll also have the advantage of blocking companies like Meta from accessing their phone apps — unless the EU steps in.
Apple dominates the iPhone ecosystem by blocking third-party accessories like watches and glasses from offering messaging or communicating with phone apps. But the EU DMA ruled that Apple must open up its system.
If Apple’s lawyers can’t argue their way out of this, it’ll force the smart glasses war onto an even playing field. And that, more than anything else, will force Apple and its rivals to compete on style, variety, and name recognition, just as much as smarts. And it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch.
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