What you need to know
- A new report says Apple's 'Glasses' have entered phase two of their production.
- It comes just days after a report that Apple would release an AR device this year.
A new report says that Apple's 'Glasses' have entered the second phase of their production, following rumors this week that an Apple AR device will be released this year.
According to DigiTimes:
Apple is about to enter the second phase of its AR glasses prototype development, according to industry sources.
Earlier this week supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo stated that amongst Apple's lineup of 2021 products is a long-rumored Apple AR device. Shy on details, Kuo simply notes that one of Apple's suppliers in its Asian supply chain, Everwin Precision, is primed to help supply Apple with both Apple silicon MacBooks and an AR device.
In June, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman stated that Apple had two separate AR projects on the go. An Augmented Reality headset, (think Oculus Quest) for use with gaming and the like, and a pair of lightweight AR glasses to be released "by 2023 at the earliest."
Interestingly, serial Apple leaker Jon Prosser reported back in May that Apple's glasses, named Apple Glass, are actually going to be released before any kind of AR headset. From that report:
Jon says that Apple planned to announce Apple Glass as a "One More Thing" announcement in either Q4 2020 or Q1 of 2021. The catch is that COVID-19 has suspended all such Apple keynotes, and it would of course like the media to be present. Apple was reportedly planning to try this at the iPhone 12 event, but all of this is dependent on the COVID-19 pandemic, and Prosser says there's a chance Apple might not be able to have the media presence it wants that early, so he offers March 2021 as an alternative window.
Gurman and Prosser's predictions contrast heavily, however, both are united along with supply chain guru Ming-Chi Kuo in stating that Apple has plans for a mainstream AR product coming from Apple sometime in the near(ish) future. Given this latest DigiTimes report, it seems unlikely that a product that has just entered phase two of prototyping would be released this quarter.
