Apple could develop a fitness ring that gathers vital health data, as well as smart (but not AR) glasses and AirPods equipped with cameras and more sensors.
In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman reports that the Cupertino tech giant considered the above gadgets in order to boost sales (which stagnated in 2023) without cannibalizing existing products.
The fitness ring would track key health metrics and appeal to people who wear traditional wristwatches and those who, for various reasons, don’t like Apple Watch—maybe because they deem it too pricey or they don’t need all the features or don’t want another device that needs nightly charging.
The smart glasses could serve as an AirPods replacement by integrating speakers and cameras that would identify things in the user’s environment.
To those who don’t want to wear spectacles on their nose, Apple could offer AirPods with cameras and health sensors that would give them many of the benefits of smart glasses without needing lenses and frames.
An Apple ring could gather key health data
Oura Health has successfully commercialized a smart ring with health functions, and Samsung is working on a similar device. Similarly, Apple’s ring be a health and fitness metrics data source in its Health and Fitness apps.
Even though Apple’s designers presented the ring idea to executives on the health team a few years ago, it has remained just an idea. “The company isn’t actively developing such a device, but there are certainly people within the walls of Apple’s campus promoting the concept,” Gurman has it.
Smart glasses as an AirPods replacement
For context, Apple hasn’t given up on true augmented reality glasses with transparent screens, even if they’re not imminent. But until the technology gets there, though, Apple could develop Meta Ray Ban-like glasses with integrated speakers and cameras (but no display) “to identify things in the surrounding world.”
They would have longer battery life than AirPods and feature additional sensors and broader AI capabilities. “That would mean people wouldn’t have to wear their AirPods (though they could use them for higher-quality audio) while still staying entrenched in an Apple interface all day long,” Gurman wrote.
“Just as a ring would be cheaper than an Apple Watch, these glasses would be less expensive than Apple’s headset—even if the company brings down the cost of its $3,500 Vision Pro. The glasses could still include cameras, speakers and health sensors, but make a head-worn product more appealing to mainstream consumers.”
This project has moved from the conceptual into an exploratory phase known as “technology investigation” within the hardware engineering division.
Supercharged AirPods that’d put cameras in your ears
Apple is also exploring supercharged AirPods, codenamed B798, with integrated health sensors and cameras. Apple began investigating the technological feasibility of such a product in 2023, Gurman has learned, but patent applications reveal that the company considered health-tracking AirPods back in 2018.
That project allegedly “involves company engineers figuring out how to fit low-resolution camera sensors into earbuds about the size of today’s AirPods,” he wrote. “Such cameras could theoretically be used to capture data that would be processed via AI and assist people in their daily routines.”
Overall sales dropped in 2023
Apple’s sales decreased across almost all product segments in 2023, and new lower-cost wearable products could help revert that trend. However, Apple hasn’t decided yet as “none of these products may ever see the light of day.”