Under its Google X Project, the Mountain View tech behemoth had ventured into optical display-mounted eyewear called Google Glass. But this technological innovation wasn’t able to garner mass traction and was shuttered in early 2015. While we’re still waiting to unexpectedly hear about the Google Glass successor, Bloomberg reports that Cupertino giant Apple is planning to expand into AR-based digital glasses business.
According to anonymous insider sources, Apple is working on a secret pair of glasses that’ll connect wirelessly to your iPhone and display info, images, and other data in your field of view — very much like Google Glass. They further added that the tech behemoth has not only initiated talks about this glasses project with potential suppliers but also sourced “small quantities of near-eye displays” from one supplier to begin testing.
The information from Bloomberg’s sources suggests that Apple hasn’t sourced enough components for the development of their rumored digital eyewear project. Thus, the tech behemoth currently seems to be toying with the idea of a digital head-mounted display to compete with the likes of Google, Microsoft, and others. If these tests bear fruits and the company does go ahead with the project, then you can expect it to be introduced in 2018 at the earliest.
Both of these tech giants are already experimenting with AR and VR tech in their backyards. Google has recently unveiled its Daydream VR platform whereas Redmond has been working on its AR headset ‘Hololens’ for quite some time now.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has also been pretty vocal about his interest in AR rather than VR. The company has been looking to delve into this upcoming technology and this might be the avenue they’ve been waiting to explore. If done right, this one project could be the one which pushes Apple back to the top rung of the innovation ladder. This place has currently been hogged by Microsoft, who’s taking bold steps to introduce products like the humongous Surface Studio for the creative crowd. Cupertino, on the other hand, is receiving mixed(more negative!) reactions over the addition of only a secondary OLED Touch Bar atop the keyboard in the latest MacBook Pro.
