Apple Challenges Meta with Smart Glasses, Differentiates with Design and Compatibility (Comprehensive)

Apple is set to launch its first smart glasses next year, entering a market currently dominated by Meta. Apple aims to differentiate its product by leveraging its signature design and seamless device compatibility.

According to Bloomberg on April 12 (local time), Apple is testing four designs for its smart glasses, internally codenamed "N50," and plans to release the product either at the end of this year or early next year. Unlike the Vision Pro, which displays virtual images on a screen, this new product will be a smart glasses device equipped with a camera, microphone, and sensors but without a display.

Apple CEO Tim Cook making a 'V' sign. (Cupertino, Reuters - Yonhap News) Tim Cook, Apple Chief Executive Officer (CEO), showed a 'V' sign with his fingers while attending the iPhone new product launch event held at the Steve Jobs Theater at the Cupertino headquarters in California, USA, on the 9th (local time). On the same day, Apple unveiled the iPhone 16 series equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) features. 2024.09.10

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Meta currently leads the smart glasses market. According to market research firm IDC, Meta held a dominant 72.2% global market share in the extended reality (XR) segment last year, mainly with the first and second generations of its Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. This is a commanding position, especially considering the second-ranked Xiaomi holds only 4.2% of the market. IDC predicts that global XR device shipments will grow by 33.5% this year, with most of the growth expected to come from smart glasses without displays.

The biggest differentiators for Apple's smart glasses are their high compatibility with the iPhone and their design. Complex computations will be handled by the iPhone, while the smart glasses will serve as input and output devices. Through Siri, integrated with Apple Intelligence and iOS version 27, the device will analyze the user's surroundings to provide personalized features. In particular, Apple CEO Tim Cook emphasizes "visual intelligence"-an AI technology that recognizes the surrounding environment in real time to provide relevant information. Apple plans to apply this visual intelligence not only to its smart glasses, but also to wearable devices like camera-equipped pendants and AirPods.

Apple is designing the frames using a material called acetate. Unlike Meta, which relies on its partner EssilorLuxottica, or Google, which has partnered with eyewear manufacturer Warby Parker, Apple is developing its own proprietary design. While Meta's smart glasses are equipped with a single camera that can switch between low-power computer vision sensors and media capture functions, Apple is working to equip its device with cameras specialized for each function.

Meta's Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses 2nd Generation. Meta.

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Competition in the smart glasses market is expected to intensify further. In addition to Meta, Google, and Apple, Chinese companies are also entering the market aggressively. Industry players see smart glasses as the next-generation interface, moving beyond wearable devices to AI and vision-based user interaction. Google, in collaboration with Samsung Electronics and Warby Parker, is developing two types of smart glasses equipped with Gemini, aiming for release this year. At the end of last year, Alibaba launched the "Quark AI Glass," which is based on its proprietary AI model Qwen.

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