As growth in the smartphone market slows, Apple, Meta, and others see a new product opportunity in smart glasses — and Apple is reportedly preparing to enter the face race.

It’s important to set expectations for new products. The smart glasses Apple is working on now won’t be augmented reality glasses in the same sense as Vision Pro. They will instead be smart spectacles with built in cameras, microphones, and other sensors. Apple is also working on augmented reality glasses with integrated displays, but we’ll be waiting for a while until those appear.

Imagine a pair of spectacles equipped with speakers, microphones, and cameras that pair with the iPhone and its processor to do useful things such as take photos and videos, provide notifications, deliver directions, play music, or offer up smarter Siri responses. The glasses should be seen as an accessory, just like an Apple Watch and they will not be enterprise products.

What Apple is doing, according to Bloomberg

Bloomberg tells us Apple is testing at least four different designs that it hopes to announce later this year and ship in 2027. The company hopes to introduce something that looks better than any rival smart glasses, thanks to its talent for design. It also hopes to define an iconic appearance, just as the iPod became the definitive design for MP3 players or the iPhone defined smartphones.

It’s typical Apple. After all, the company has arguably perfected the user interfaces for these gadgets with its more expensive systems. So, now it absolutely can focus on the technology, hardware, and hardware design. 

Face values

Design excellence also demands these glasses use premium components, which Bloomberg says they will. That means high-end materials such as acetate rather than plastic. It also means the hardware must look, work, and perform better than what anyone else (principally, Meta) has been able to bring to market.

Apple is looking at a variety of designs, which might be available in multiple colors, such as black, blue, or light brown:

• Larger glasses with oval or circular frames.
• Smaller glasses with oval or circular frames.
• Slim, rectangular glasses similar to the frames worn by Apple CEO Tim Cook.
• Glasses that echo Ray-Ban Wayfarers, one of the world’s most popular designs.

When are these things coming? The report tells us Apple hopes to announce them later this year but warns they might not ship until fall 2027. (That of course means we can anticipate at least one “Apple to ship product late” headline ahead of that.)

Why it matters

There’s cash to be made. Counterpoint Research says global smart glasses shipments surged 210% in 2024, reaching 2 million units for the first time. 

“Smart glasses look set to become the next fast-growing AI edge device, disrupting the traditional eyewear industry as its leading players cooperate with tech companies,” said CitiGroup.

Apple’s main competitor in the space is Meta, which had 82% of the market in the second half of 2025, Can Apple change that? It might well be worth trying, given that some analysts predict the smart glasses market could reach $40 billion by 2030.

All the same, Apple must tread carefully. When Google introduced Google Glass, the people who wore these things were quickly dubbed “glassholes.” Apple will want to avoid opening its customers up to such ridicule — the cool factor is a must for mass market success.

Apple will also be challenged by the need to reassure customers (and everyone around those customers) about privacy. In an increasingly surveillance-heavy environment, in which governments demand back doors into data, it’s probable that many would-be customers will resist the technologies. They will see them as akin to paying for the tools of their own oppression. More fundamental questions also exist: Is it really appropriate to wear these spectacles outside a school, for example?

Time, and the reaction of the mass market, will tell. 

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