- 10 hours ago
Apple Glasses are coming, but not how you might expect. In this interview, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman joins Tom's Guide's Mark Spoonauer to break down the latest insights on Apple’s real plan for AI wearables, including display-less smart glasses, AirPods with cameras and even a wearable AI pendant.
We get into the expected timeline (hint: 2027), the features Apple is betting on, and why everything hinges on a completely revamped Siri powered in part by Google’s Gemini models.
If you’ve been waiting for Apple’s next big thing after Vision Pro, this is the closest look yet at what’s actually coming... and what could still go wrong.
We get into the expected timeline (hint: 2027), the features Apple is betting on, and why everything hinges on a completely revamped Siri powered in part by Google’s Gemini models.
If you’ve been waiting for Apple’s next big thing after Vision Pro, this is the closest look yet at what’s actually coming... and what could still go wrong.
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00:03Easily one of the most anticipated gadgets of the next few years are going to be Apple Glasses,
00:07but what form will they take and what other AI wearables could be coming? The best person to
00:12answer this question is Mark Gurman from Bloomberg and we have him here today. And Mark, welcome to
00:17the program here. Mark, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. So let's talk about
00:23Apple Glasses because I think that no one else has reported on this, you know, rumored device
00:28than yourself. And I think that probably the first question that people are going to have is
00:33what are they and when can we expect them? Yeah, my strong belief and from everything that
00:40I've been told is Apple is going into the display list smart glasses game. They will release this
00:47product likely in the first half of next year, so 2027. And the idea is to build basically what
00:54Meta has done and what some of these other smart glasses makers have done, but at an Apple fit and
00:59finish in Apple quality. You've seen Apple come into product categories late or after many of its
01:06competitors, its peers in Silicon Valley, in China and elsewhere, and bring a different quality level
01:11to it. You know, you're going to see that with the foldable phone later in the year, right? Foldables
01:16have existed for a very long time. Apple's functionality will be very similar. The concept will be very
01:22similar, but you're going to see some Apple details like improved durability and less visible crease in
01:29the display. And with the smart glasses, the idea is to come in with a product that has, you know,
01:34different fit and finish level, different materials, and obviously integrated heavily into the the Apple
01:40ecosystem, pairing with your iPhone, using Siri, using visual intelligence, having higher end camera
01:47systems, using Apple developed computer vision. So differentiating in some key ways from the Meta
01:53product, but also being very similar to the product from Meta and Google and from other companies.
01:59Yeah, I guess that's probably my first question then after that is like you mentioned design,
02:04like the fit and finish, obviously that's going to help maybe the quality of the cameras,
02:08I think as you've reported on before, are they enough to make these glasses stand out?
02:15Well, the Apple brand is so strong, so keep that as one factor. The other factor is that while the
02:22iPhone is compatible with, you know, competing wearables, compatible with the Meta smart glasses,
02:28the way that Apple limits interoperability, even with the new regulations from the EU and elsewhere,
02:33means that no third party product is going to play as nicely with the iPhone
02:38as smart glasses developed by Apple. Just like even though there's new features to pair with third
02:42party smart watches, nothing plays as nice with the iPhone in the watch space as the Apple watch.
02:48And so you're going to see that as another factor. And then, of course, on top of that
02:52is branding, Apple design, Apple style, the way Apple is going to try to upsell people who buy an
02:58iPhone and try to get them to buy smart glasses to work with their iPhone at the time of purchase.
03:04They have a lot of ingredients to sell a lot of these smart glasses, I think.
03:08What about use cases, though? Because I think a lot of people think, okay, well, is it just like,
03:12you know, a smartphone on your face? Obviously, it's much more than that. It's meant to be actually
03:16just more like an accessory to your smartphone. In your reporting, you do mention some of those
03:20use cases like navigation or if you're at a store, maybe you see something on the shelf and it reminds
03:25you like, hey, you need to pick this up or you put this on your reminder list. What are some
03:31like
03:31use cases that you've been hearing in terms of like, why would people want to wear these glasses?
03:37Yeah, that's exactly right. The use cases at this point are to make this device an accessory
03:42to your iPhone. Some people working on the Apple wearables have called these devices sort of the
03:48eyes and ears to the smartphone for the AI and cloud era. The computer vision cameras, obviously,
03:55you're going to be able to take high resolution pictures. And the frame point of taking pictures
04:00from the smart glasses, taking video from the smart glasses gives you some unique
04:04standpoints and features from a creativity standpoint for photography and videography.
04:10The other thing is Siri. They need to get this new Siri out the door in order to make these
04:15smart
04:15glasses functional or usable in any proper way. We'll see how good their visual models are. But in terms
04:22of overall features, you're talking about many of the same things that Meta and others have been
04:26doing for years with their smart glasses. In addition to capturing media, looking at something and
04:31asking what it is. I've talked about visual reminders. One cool potential use case is walking down the
04:36street, using the built-in speakers in the smart glasses to be told where you're going in turn-by-turn
04:42directions and maps. And rather it tell you to make a left in 400 feet, it says make a left
04:47by the
04:48gray hotel or the white minivan or whatnot. So getting more context by using those cameras.
04:56Obviously you'll do phone calls, you'll do music. They're going to be AirPods essentially with more
05:01battery life and health sensors and functionality. So it's an accessory. It's not going to change the
05:08world. But until Apple is able to figure out a way to do augmented reality glasses, you know,
05:14with displays at normal cost, at normal battery life, at normal processing power, this is the reality.
05:20Yeah. I mean, obviously Vision OS glasses are on the horizon, but in the meantime, as you mentioned,
05:25like these glasses that display less glasses don't happen or won't be well received without a new and
05:32improved Siri. And we both know that it's been delayed for literally years at this point. So how vital
05:38is the new Siri and visual intelligence for these new glasses? And what can you tell us about like
05:45how far along that is at this point? Yeah, it's actually wild. Then the new
05:49Siri is likely not going to launch until September, iOS 27 timeframe, which means it's going to launch
05:56over two years, about two and a quarter years after it was introduced, about two years after it was
06:05initially supposed to launch. So definitely not a good look for Apple. Obviously they've partnered
06:09with Google here. What they've done is they've taken the Gemini model and they've taken the core
06:15infrastructure, the core technology in that model, popped open the hood of its existing Apple
06:19foundation models and brought some of that technology into it. It's sort of like you take two cars,
06:25you have a low-end car and a high-end car, and you take parts of the high-end car's
06:29engine and stuff
06:30it into the low-end car's engine to give that a better engine in that lower-end car. That's sort
06:36of what Apple's doing here by taking some of that Gemini technology and putting it in its foundation
06:42model infrastructure. Now, of course, as Siri glasses, and that's really what they are, or an
06:48accessory for Apple intelligence and that new Siri interface, you're going to have to rely heavily on
06:54those models to work properly. And so the real risk for Apple wasn't necessarily Siri no longer working
07:00well on the iPhone, the Mac, and the iPad, their existing devices, it's that they're not able to
07:04launch their next range of devices without this functionality. The smart glasses are one example.
07:10There's AirPods with cameras they've been working on, so these AI-ified earbuds. You've got a pin or a
07:17pendant that you can wear on your shirt or around your neck as a necklace. And then they've been working
07:22on these smart home devices for several years, including a smart home hub, basically a device geared
07:28towards competing with the Amazon Echo Show and what people call bringing Siri to life. They've
07:33been trying to launch that for two years now, and you can't do that without the new Siri. And so
07:37we'll
07:37see that in the fall. You have to wonder if they have to redesign it at a certain point.
07:43But yeah, I guess we'll come to that later. We were talking very briefly about Gemini and how
07:48important that is to the new model and that it is going to be under the hood for the new
07:53Siri. So
07:54how much of a help will it be that the new Siri will be Gemini powered, whether it's on your
08:00phone
08:00or on your face? You know, everything I've heard is that Apple has figured out and cracked the code
08:07on this new Siri thanks to those Gemini models. They've been running behind quite a bit. They
08:12initially wanted to get this Gemini Siri out as part of an announcement in February and then release
08:17it to customers by the end of March. That was postponed into May and now postponed into September.
08:22It feels like a replay when they thought they got Siri right a year ago after some of the initial
08:27delays. But at this point, I do believe it'll launch as part of iOS 27. They have no choice but
08:32to get
08:33it out at this point. They've burned so many bridges with customers and developers, a lot of marketing
08:38spend on this. So they're going to have to bring that to market. So I do think it's going to
08:42be effective.
08:44Just to be clear, so this Gemini partnership that they're paying a billion plus a year for,
08:50this is to get that model technology. So it's not like when you go into Siri by default,
08:55it will run Google services or run the same interface and conversational abilities as Gemini.
09:02But what Apple is doing is they are revamping their own Siri interface for iOS 27, coming out with a
09:10Siri app, revamping Siri to operate like a chatbot like Gemini. And then they're also coming out with
09:16a new feature called extensions, which means if there are third-party chatbots on the App Store that you
09:22like and the developer wants to do this, they can get an entitlement so you can enable those chatbots
09:28to work within the Siri interface. It's basically what Apple has allowed with ChatGPT since 2024 as
09:34part of Siri and Apple intelligence, but opening it up to any third-party chatbot via the App Store.
09:39Sure. All right. So a quick follow-up then. So is it your understanding that obviously it's not
09:44going to be called Gemini, but will the new Siri have a Gemini Live type feature where you're having
09:51a real-time conversation with that chatbot while you're wearing the glasses? That is the intent.
09:58I don't think it's going to be as spectacular as what you've seen from the OpenAI voice mode or the
10:04ChatGPT live voice mode that you mentioned. But there is going to be back and forth conversational
10:09ability in Siri for the first time, for sure. Okay. So let's talk about the competition. I mean,
10:14we touched on what's happening with Android XR and Gemini, and I've had a chance to demo some of those
10:20early glasses and have been very impressed with even the early capabilities, especially when you
10:24integrate services like Google Maps. But then you also have Meta Ray-Ban, which is clearly the
10:29leader right now. Google's not shipping anything and neither is its partners, but they will be.
10:33So when you look at the landscape, both Meta now and what Google and Samsung are going to be bringing
10:39to the table, where do you feel like the Apple will stack up against the competition?
10:44I have to tell you, if you look at the past when Apple has ruled out new products like the
10:51Apple
10:51Watch, like the AirPods, they come into these existing markets and they basically vanguished
10:57them. They weren't able to do that with the car. Obviously, the Vision Pro is a huge flop and a
11:01major
11:02miss. It cost them tens of billions of dollars over a decade and what have you. I do feel though
11:09that
11:09Apple has the proper ingredients to pull off the smart glasses. If the voice assistant works,
11:14if it plays as nicely with the iPhone as it should be as an Apple product, if the designs look
11:20great
11:21and effective, I think they're going to quickly begin outselling Meta and Google. The one leg up
11:27that Google's going to have is partnership with big brands like Warby Parker. The leg up that Meta has
11:34is that first mover advantage, the compatibility with Android and iOS. Also, I went to LensCrafters the
11:41other day to get normal glasses. They're marketing these MetaSmart glasses through Ray-Ban very well.
11:48Apple's going to be competing its brand with big glasses brands like Warby Parker, Ray-Ban, Oakley,
11:56obviously Exor Luxottica. Let's see how they stack up. I think Apple's going to do quite well.
12:03But overall, my take is that the glasses category is being held back by the lack of AR.
12:09I don't think the non-display glasses are particularly useful. I think that the Meta
12:14Ray-Ban displays are a taste of where things are going, but hopefully those come sooner than I think
12:19they will because displays are really the future of this glasses category.
12:24I would agree. These are like stepping stones. But in terms of how these glasses are going to be
12:29sold, I think what's really interesting is that it seems like Apple is going to be going all alone
12:34and not partnering with the likes of LensCrafters or Warby Parker or others. And there's been recent
12:40reporting about some of the challenges that they had rolling out the Vision Pro because they didn't
12:44have enough training for the people in their stores. Is it a little bit of a gamble to put all
12:49of
12:49their eggs in the Apple store basket if that's indeed what they're doing?
12:54I don't think it's a gamble. I think the Vision Pro, the fundamental problems with the Vision Pro
13:00came down to the price, $4,000 with the tax and some accessories. You add it all up, you can
13:06get to
13:07$4,500, $5,000 if you get all the accoutrement around it and AppleCare and what have you. A fully
13:15enclosed device, wearing something like a helmet or a visor around your head, the limited applications,
13:22limited appeal for so many different reasons. So I think the smart glasses is a completely different
13:26category. So many people, you know, billions of people potentially could use these things across
13:33people who need prescriptions, right? It could help you from that standpoint. People who want to
13:38use it for accessibility purposes and people who just want the next hot new gadget or an earbuds
13:42replacement or something for, you know, fitness tracking or what have you. So I do think these
13:48things are going to be successful. And I think, you know, while the retail stores may have not done
13:55anything to sell the Vision Pro, I don't think it necessarily hurt sales of the Vision Pro because
13:59I didn't think it was going to sell well to begin with. In terms of the Apple stores with the
14:05smart
14:05glasses, I think it's going to be very much a net positive.
14:08Okay. So what about the privacy issue though? Because when it comes to marketing,
14:13I think there's already starting to be a little bit of a backlash around the meta glasses,
14:17you know, especially with people like filming and other people may not know that it's happening.
14:22Do you have any like understanding of how Apple is going to address
14:25privacy in the smart glasses space?
14:28Oh, I think it's, I think what's going on with meta.
14:31First of all, let me say, I'm not sure meta is getting a fair shake on this.
14:34I think some of their, you know, Cambridge Analytica and other baggages is holding them back in the,
14:39in the privacy realm. Obviously they do some things that people don't,
14:42people don't like and they have to work on that. But I do think they're being held back a bit.
14:47And I think there's been a lot of controversy there. That's not 100% fair.
14:51Okay.
14:51But that being said, this is amazing for Apple, right? Apple has been learning over the last
14:56little months, exactly what the issues are, exactly what customers don't want, exactly how meta has
15:01messed up. So they can attack them right from the forefront and say, they do this, this, and that.
15:06We do the exact opposite across all of these different, uh, marks. So I think the controversy
15:12for smart glasses is actually an opportunity for Apple.
15:15Okay. And then before we segue to the other AI wearables that Apple is supposedly working on,
15:21what is your most up-to-date timetable for vision OS slash AR glasses coming from Apple?
15:29Yeah, I don't anticipate, uh, AR glasses, vision OS glasses from Apple, uh, before 2028 at the
15:36earliest. I think it could be even later in the decade. I don't think they're going to do it
15:39until they can get it right. And they are, uh, meaningfully, uh, away at this point.
15:44Okay. Well, that's just another Siri away. So we're good, right?
15:48There you go.
15:49So what about these other AI wearables that you've reported on, including the AirPods with cameras?
15:54Cause I think when a lot of people hear that they're like, why would I want cameras on my AirPods?
15:58So maybe just explain that real quick in terms of what the benefits would be. And is that actually
16:02coming this year?
16:04Yeah, the camera AirPods pro, this is not about, uh, taking pictures or capturing video.
16:10These are low quality IR cameras, so to speak, uh, to measure the surrounding world. So the same things
16:19I explained that you can do, uh, not in terms of media capture on smart glasses. So understanding
16:25the world around you, looking at things, uh, helping give context for visual reminders,
16:31helping give context or turn by turn directions. Those are what cameras on the AirPods would enable.
16:37And so you'll see people who want to buy the glasses. You'll see people who want to buy the AirPods.
16:41You maybe will see people who want to buy both. Uh, but these were the original sort of Apple,
16:46uh, AI wearable that they were looking at. And so I expect those to launch, um,
16:51as well in the next year or so and be a compliment, uh, and an alternative to the glasses.
16:57Do you see it being as like a third tier of AirPods, like AirPods ultra,
17:01or do you think they slot in where the AirPods pro are now?
17:04You know, it will be a bit more expensive to get the cameras into the AirPods.
17:09Uh, and there may be some people who don't want AirPods with the cameras built in.
17:15Uh, and so I think it would make a lot of sense to me, uh, that maybe these will initially,
17:20and again, I'm speculating here, it would make sense to me for these to be another tier
17:24on top, maybe something like you said, an AirPods ultra. Uh, and then, you know,
17:28eventually I think the pro and ultra lines will, will probably converge.
17:31Okay. And then what about the AI pendant? So like, what do you know about this product? And
17:36do you feel like it's still in development? Absolutely. The, the pendant is designed to
17:41be worn as a necklace. So there'll be accessories to wear it around your neck. Uh, there'll be
17:46accessories to be able to pin it on your person, on your shirt, on your sweater, on your jacket,
17:50or what have you. And again, this is an eyes and ears product. Maybe there are people who don't
17:56want to wear AirPods. Maybe there are people who don't want to wear smart glasses, but you still
17:59want to be able to feed that contextual data, uh, to your iPhone, to the cloud for Apple
18:04intelligence and for Siri. So that's the alternative product for you. I don't think
18:09this will be nearly as successful as the AI AirPods or the smart glasses, but if Apple wants
18:14to capture as much data as possible for context and for AI, obviously they'll tout this in a privacy
18:20centric manner as their differentiator. They have to hit all the major wearable categories. So it seems
18:25like they knew they were running behind here. And so they're throwing everything, but the kitchen sink
18:28got it. Okay. So last question for me is like, how does this all come together?
18:33You know, so if Apple is going to be rolling out smart glasses, like, cause I think the initial
18:37reporting is like, maybe they tease it this year, but then it wrote like it's produced next year,
18:41but then maybe that's slipping at this point. Do you see that like Apple doing like a special event
18:46around AI devices and wearables and smart glasses, or do you see it like as an add-on to
18:51what else they're doing? Like what's your sense on how like this will all come together?
18:55You know, the plan for some time has been to introduce the smart glasses in September,
19:00October timeframe of this year, and then roll them out early in 2027. If you look at what they've
19:08got for the tail end of 2026, they don't have that much at this point. And so you kind of
19:15want the
19:15smart glasses in there. Like at this point, I don't think rolling out minor tweaks to the 17 Pro and
19:21Pro
19:21Macs with the 18 models, the foldable phone, the touch MacBook Pro and the smart home device,
19:27like it screams for something more, especially in this AI moment. And so I'd be pretty surprised if
19:32they did not introduce them before the end of the year, even if it's going to take several months for
19:36them to actually reach customers. And the other thing is you really want these, if you're Apple,
19:41to be introduced before the holiday season, because you don't want one more cycle for Meta to get
19:46momentum selling these glasses, especially given they're going to be very giftable. And you want to
19:51sort of pull the rug out from under Google and Warby Parker and some of the other brands who are
19:56launching their glasses at the end of the year, I believe Samsung as well. So from a marketing
20:00standpoint, I'd be pretty surprised if they didn't do an introduction before the end of the year.
20:05Yeah. So they may be late to the category, but they at least want to tip their hand in terms
20:09of what they're working on?
20:11Yeah, because they don't have any smart glasses on the market right now. They're not going to
20:14cannibalize their own sales. The only risk is them cannibalizing everyone else's sales. And
20:19of course, that's a big positive for Apple.
20:21Okay. Well, we have a lot to look forward to, hopefully, from Apple when it comes to wearables.
20:26And I just wanted to thank you, Mark Gurman, for joining us.
20:28Thank you, sir.
20:30All right. Thanks a lot.
20:32All right. If you like what we've been talking about today, make sure you like and subscribe to Tom's
20:35Guide and stay tuned for all of our updates around wearables and all things Apple.
20:40For Tom's Guide, this is Mark Spoonhour.
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