Apple AI glasses launch pushed back to late 2027, Vision Air to arrive by 2029: report

Apple has been working on AI smart glasses for a little while, both to compete against Meta Ray-Bans and to provide a hardware platform for Siri and its Visual Intelligence features. While they were originally set to be announced at the end of this year and debut early next year, that’s now been delayed, with a launch now set to take place by the end of 2027, per Bloomberg.

On the flip side of things, a cheaper and lighter version of Apple Vision Pro, dubbed Vision Air, may arrive as soon as 2028, potentially 2029.

When we first heard about Apple’s advanced efforts to release smart glasses around this time last year, the company was on track to announce a pair by the end of this year. Now, timelines have slipped slightly, and Apple will need an additional year, per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman:

While Siri is still on track to debut before the end of this year, the larger development concern is Apple’s visual AI technology might not be up to par by the end of this year. Apple doesn’t want to risk launching an unappealing product.

These glasses are largely launching as a hardware platform for Apple Intelligence, though the products feature set will expand over time:

Lastly, Apple believes it has a massive opportunity here in the eyewear space, and wants to potentially capture billions of people who depend on prescription glasses, casually wear sunglasses, or use glasses as a fashion accessory. So, it makes sense that the company wants to take additional time to nail down the product offering.

Despite earlier reporting that Vision Air development was essentially shelved in favor of the AI glasses outlined above, it does sound like Apple is putting some resources into its development again. According to Mark Gurman, Apple’s slimmer and lighter version of Vision Pro could debut in late 2028 or 2029:

2029 does sound far away, but it’s also worth noting that Vision Pro originally debuted around 3 years ago at WWDC 2023, so really, we’re about an equal amount of time away from Vision Air as we are from the original Vision Pro. I’m not sure if that comparison is actually helpful or just makes everyone feel old, but nonetheless, 2029 isn’t incredibly far – and there is still the optimist case of late 2028.

It’s also worth noting that Gurman refers to the category as ‘on ice until then’, so we probably shouldn’t expect anything newer than the current-generation M5 Vision Pro until the Vision Air debuts in 2-3 years.

My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:

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