The concept of AR glasses and its reality has been evolving across the years and companies.
At last week’s Meta Connect developers conference, Mark Zuckerberg introduced a prototype of its Orion AR Glasses project.
It is Meta’s first attempt at AR glasses, and those who tested it praised it as a well-designed product with serious potential. One of the more significant commentaries on the Orion came from one of the tech industry’s most revered analysts.
Ben Thompson writes a very influential newsletter called Stratechery. It is a well-read, paid newsletter, and he has become perhaps the best independent objective analyst in our industry today. Ben attended Meta Connect and was one of the few to test Meta’s Orion AR glasses in person.
After testing it, Mr. Thompson reports that-
“Three demos really stood out for me. First, the notification flow was as cool as you might imagine. You can be doing something else — either in augmented reality or just in the real world — and you can see and click into a notification simply by moving your eyes and touching your fingers together. The lack of friction is amazing. Second, while you can pin applications in physical space like the Vision Pro, you can also pin them in your vision, so that they stay in view even as you physically move around. It’s kind of an obvious thing to do for glasses meant to be worn out-and-about, but it was still striking. Third, I really enjoyed the two games that I played; one was a space-invader type game and the other was Pong, played with another Orion wearer. That noted, there weren’t a ton of apps; this is obviously an area that Meta will need to focus on heavily over the next couple of years.”
His overall view is that Meta’s Orion AR glasses have enormous potential. He personally liked the direction Meta is headed with these glasses, which are still prototypes and at least three years away from shipping.
I encourage you to read his Orion review as he also gives an excellent perspective on where Apple’s Vision Pro went wrong and that “the next Apple Vision (don’t call it “Pro”) should be Apple’s version of the Quest. It should be primarily a VR headset with a much more straightforward and cheaper pass-through focused on delivering a great entertainment experience.
While I agree with Mr. Thompson that the next Vision Pro should be more like the Quest 3 or the Quest 3S, I am certain that Apple has its own version of powerful AR glasses in the works.
When I spoke to Apple CEO Tim Cook in 2017 about the company’s announced focus on augmented reality after the introduction of AR Kit at the developer conference that year, he was clear to me that he felt AR “would be one of the most important technologies Apple would ever deliver in the future.”
This tells me that even before the AR Kit launched, Apple had already started working on some AR glasses in its labs. Although some of that research eventually produced the Vision Pro, I believe Apple went down a dual path and has been accelerating its AR glasses and working with suppliers to get the technology needed to deliver a great AR experience in glasses as soon as possible.
Since Apple searches the world for the latest and greatest technology to use in whatever product it is working on, you can imagine that it has seen all of the technologies Meta has put in Orion. At the same time, they are working with suppliers and perhaps developing the technology they want in its own AR glasses.
Meta has probably been working on Orion and smart glasses since at least 2020, if not longer, and is still three years away from bringing them to market.
However, Apple most likely started its AR glasses project around 2015 and is almost ten years into creating its version of AR glasses.
While I do believe Apple will bring out a new, cheaper version of the Vision Pro no later than early 2026, I would not be surprised if Apple introduced its own ready-for-market AR glasses around the same time and beat Meta and its Orion glasses to the market.
The one caveat to Apple bringing its AR glasses to the market before Meta’s Orion ships still revolves around the technology developments needed to deliver Apple’s design, features, and functions that meet its standards.
Once Apple introduces its AR glasses, it has the potential to lead the market and emerge as a key influencer that propels it into widespread adoption in the future.
Disclosure: Apple subscribes to Creative Strategies research reports along with many other high tech companies around the world.
