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Apple has reportedly paused its plan to revamp its Vision Pro headset in favor of speeding up development of smart glasses. According to Bloomberg, Apple internally announced last week that it was shifting employees and resources away from the next iteration of the Vision Pro and towards developing two models of yet unnamed Apple-branded smart glasses.
The first Apple glasses, codenamed N50, are audio-and-AI-focused spectacles designed to pair with iPhones, similar to the first generation of Ray-Ban Meta glasses. Apple is aiming to get them to market in 2026. The second, more ambitious, Apple glasses will feature a display, like the second generation of Meta smart glasses. According to Bloomberg’s sources, the release date for Apple display glasses was originally 2028, but the company has decided to speed up development in order to release them sooner.
Vision Pro gets a tune-up, not a sequel
Apple isn’t halting all work on the Vision Pro. The company is apparently still planning to release an improved version of its headset later this year. The Vision Pro will feature a faster chip (and no doubt other modest improvements) but it isn’t a new generation of the headset.
Apple is also reportedly working on revamping Siri for a planned March 2026 release. The more powerful AI agent will no doubt be included in everything Apple, from phones, computers, and cameras, to smart glasses.
What do you think so far?
The future reality will be augmented, not virtual
Given the disappointing sales of Apple Vision Pro headsets, and how far Apple is behind the industry leader in the smart glasses space—Meta released its original AI-equipped smart glasses in 2021—it’s not surprising that the company would be allocating resources toward playing catch up. But it’s disappointing news for fans of Apple Vision Pro. If the company is halting development of the next generation of its VR headset, support for the current generation will likely suffer.
If you’re on the fence about whether to buy a pair of smart glasses or a VR headset, all signs point to the future being heavy on glasses and augmented reality, and light on headsets and virtual reality. The eventual goal for tech companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Meta is creating true augmented reality in glasses that could replace smart phones entirely. How long it will take to develop a pair of specs that can replace your phone (and really the rest of your screens) remains to be seen, but I’ve used Meta’s smart glasses every day for nearly a year, and tried going totally screenless for a day using Xreal display glasses, a smartphone-free future doesn’t seem that far off.
