Apple has “made progress” on a chip for potential smart glasses that would be competitors to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, according to Bloomberg.
The chip is apparently based on the chips Apple uses for the Apple Watch, though the company has removed parts and is being designed in such a way that it can handle the “multiple cameras” that the smart glasses might have, Bloomberg reports. Apple wants mass production of the chip to start by the end of 2026 or sometime in 2027, so the glasses themselves could come out within that timeframe.
Apple is also reportedly working on glasses that use augmented reality, which sounds similar to what Meta is chasing, too. Meta showed off its Orion glasses last year, but those won’t be sold to the public; instead, the company expects the second generation of those glasses to be the ones actually sold to consumers, and Bloomberg says those could launch in 2027.
Apple is developing chips for camera-equipped Apple Watch and Airpods as well, and the goal is for those chips to be ready “by around 2027,” Bloomberg says. The company is also developing new M-series chips and dedicated AI server chips, per the report.