Apple’s venture into the wearable market may not be limited solely to the Apple Watch anymore as Bloomberg is reporting that the Cupertino-based company is currently testing the potential of digital smart glasses.
Currently still in its exploration phases, these smart glasses are rumoured to be able to connect wirelessly to the iPhone, show images and other information in the wearer’s field of vision, and may even be compatible with augmented reality.
The concept of an AR-ready smart glass is still very much in its infancy. That being said, if Apple were to give the green light to this project, it is possible that the device would hit the market as early as 2018. In the meantime though, Apple has ordered small quantities of near-eye displays for testing, indicating that the product has yet to reach the mass-manufacturing stages yet.
Smart glasses isn’t exactly a new concept as Google has a working concept in the Google Glass. As the Google Glass never made it to the market, the whole “smart glasses” market is still ripe for the taking. Whether or not Apple would go through with the smart glass remains to be seen, but if everything goes well, we may be seeing the first true competitor to Microsoft’s own HoloLens.
Source: Bloomberg