It’s certainly not official just yet, but the rumors swirling around a future set of augmented reality glasses with an Apple logo persist. Today, for instance, a new report says Apple is one step closer towards a final product.
Today, DigiTimes is out with a report that says Apple has entered the second phase of development for its prototype AR glasses. This is all moving towards the engineering verification stage, which will be one of the last steps towards a final product that Apple feels confident to ship to customers. Before that, though, the oft-rumored AR glasses must enter a third stage of development, which, if everything goes according to plan in the second, will be a few months from now, according to the report.
If the AR glasses enter the EV stage, that may last up to 9 months. According to the report, which cites industry sources, Apple is focusing on battery life and weight.
Unfortunately, there’s not much else to go on here. Not that we should expect much more, honestly. There are plenty of rumors out there saying that this could be the year Apple launches its AR glasses, with an AR/VR headset in the works as well. But, there have also been reports that the AR glasses will launch some time in 2022, as well.
Related, but reports have also said the AR glasses will be called “Apple Glass” and will retail starting around $499 whenever they do launch.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, has said that augmented reality is a “profound” technology, but that it will take some time to get right. That was way back in 2016. Since then, the company has made AR an important feature for iPhones, and even launched ARKit to help developers take advantage of the feature.