Apple AR Glasses Release Date, Price & Specs Rumours [Fan Made Renders]

Опубликовано: 09 Июнь 2020
на канале: Abhijit Chapke

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Apple is working on augmented reality smart glasses behind closed doors. We look at the latest Apple Glass rumours, including release date, price and expected features

Apple AR glasses: Release date
Assuming that Apple is working on an AR headset or AR glasses - there is plenty of evidence (gathered below) that it is - when is such a device likely to launch?

Jon Prosser, who successfully called the iPhone SE launch a month before it happened, says Apple plans to announce what it will call Apple Glass alongside the iPhone 12 in September or October of 2020. But the company wants media present at the announcement, and if that's not possible because of COVID-19, it will push Glass back to March 2021.

The product won't be available to the public until around a year after the announcement, however, with Q4 2021-Q1 2022 the expected timeframe. For more information on this leak, read Apple Glass: 'Leak dump' reveals extensive details.

Shortly before dropping the leak video, Prosser claimed on Twitter that other sources had got it wrong, and that Apple Glass was due to make an appearance at some point between March and June 2021 - a year earlier than all other rumours suggested. But based on the video, Prosser is closer to other pundits' predictions: he simply adds a pre-release announcement beforehand.

Price
We had expected Apple's AR headset to have a high price, fitting with Apple's custom and the prices offered by the current competition.

Microsoft's HoloLens 2 glasses, for example, cost $3,500 (approx £2,661), while the Google Glass Enterprise Edition costs $1,828 (approx £1,336).

But Jon Prosser says Apple Glass will cost just $499, plus the cost of any prescription. An Apple product undercutting the rest of the market on price? How peculiar.

Design
It appears that there are actually two different AR products in the pipeline.

A headset (codenamed N301) will combine AR and VR features. This is said to resemble the Oculus Quest and feature a 3D sensor system that builds on the technology of the Face ID camera set up to create a map of a user's surroundings. The headset will be used for "gaming, watching video and virtual meetings," according to a Bloomberg report in November 2019.

In addition, there will be smaller AR glasses more suited to being worn for longer periods of time. According to The Information's source (also in November 2019) the current prototypes "look like high-priced sunglasses with thick frames that house the battery and chips."

Back in June 2017, an iPhone Hacks report claimed that Apple's smart glasses would have a unique design, according to their source.

Their insider provided details on the design - featuring a bone conduction earpiece, a microphone, an accelerometer and a capacitive frame for navigation and interaction, the glasses sound impressive.

Apple has been awarded patents that give some insight as to how the new glasses could look. One patent describes a way to conceal optical components behind an electrically-controlled layer so that they are hiden from view when not required. Another patent indicates that earphones could be removed from a head-mounted display and used as speakers (via this AppleInsider report.)

Some creative people have already come up with potential designs for Apple's glasses. For example, this YouTube video (which enthusiastically claimed that the specs would launch back in 2018) has some neat designs.

It's been an open secret for years that Apple is developing AR glasses, particularly since the announcement of ARKit at WWDC. And no wonder: with Google and Microsoft and others actively developing devices for AR, it seems like a party Apple can't afford to miss.

But what exactly does Apple have in its sights, and when are we going to see the new glasses?

A couple of patents granted in January 2020 gave some insight into Apple's plans for a headset, but most excitingly a 'leak dump' by a trusted source in May 2020 suggests we could get an announcement by the end of the year, and revealed pricing, specs and design details. The source of that leak has also claimed that Apple is working on a separate, round-framed Steve Jobs Heritage Edition of the product, and we're not sure whether to take him seriously.

In this feature, we look at all the latest Apple AR glasses rumours, patents and possible release date details, including iOS 13 support for AR glasses.