Apple refines luxury smart glasses strategy

Apple is testing four design directions for smart glasses as it weighs a more fashion-led push into wearable computing, with premium materials and a 2027 target emerging as central themes in the company’s plans to challenge Meta in a market that is moving from novelty towards a more serious consumer category.

The designs under consideration are said to include two rectangular frames and two rounder options, with finishes such as black, ocean blue and light brown, reflecting an effort to make the product feel closer to conventional eyewear than to a technology experiment. Reports indicate Apple is favouring acetate, a material widely used in higher-end spectacles, rather than cheaper plastics, suggesting the company wants the device to project a more polished look in a segment where style has proved nearly as important as software.

That emphasis matters because smart glasses have so far struggled whenever the hardware has looked awkward, bulky or overly futuristic. Apple’s first move appears likely to be a display-free product rather than full augmented-reality glasses, placing it closer to Meta’s Ray-Ban line than to the Vision Pro headset. The aim, according to reports around Apple’s roadmap, is to create a lighter, more socially acceptable device that can handle calls, photos, audio, notifications and voice-driven assistance without asking users to wear a conspicuous headset on their face.

Apple’s timing is shaped by two pressures. One is competitive. Meta has already built a foothold in smart eyewear through its partnership with EssilorLuxottica, and the category has shown stronger commercial traction than many earlier wearable experiments. Reuters has reported that Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses have become a meaningful growth driver for EssilorLuxottica, while the company has also paused some international rollout of display-equipped models because of supply constraints and strong demand in the United States. That has signalled to rivals that consumers may be willing to buy connected glasses if they are useful and unobtrusive enough.

The second pressure is internal. Apple’s Vision Pro demonstrated the company’s engineering ambition but also underlined the limits of a high-priced headset strategy. The device drew attention for its technical sophistication, yet its cost, weight and narrower everyday appeal left room for a simpler wearable to become the company’s more practical route into head-worn computing. Reuters reported last year that Apple had scaled back Vision Pro production, and later said the company had shifted resources towards AI-focused glasses that could compete more directly with Meta.

Any such product would still depend heavily on software, and that remains one of Apple’s more delicate challenges. The company has already said some planned Siri improvements were delayed to 2026, and those capabilities are likely to be important if smart glasses are to offer hands-free usefulness rather than simply serving as an iPhone accessory perched on the face. Reports in March also indicated Apple was exploring ways to let Siri route some requests to third-party AI services, a sign that the company is still adjusting its voice and assistant strategy as the broader AI race accelerates.

That leaves Apple trying to solve a familiar equation: design, utility and timing. Premium finishes may help distinguish the glasses from cheaper rivals, but aesthetics alone will not be enough. Consumers will expect good battery life, reliable voice interaction, strong camera privacy safeguards and enough integration with the iPhone to make the device feel useful every day. Meta’s experience has shown that smart glasses can find an audience when they blend media capture, audio and AI in a familiar form. It has also shown how quickly privacy concerns can intensify as facial recognition and always-on sensing become more plausible.

Apple is not entering an empty field. Google has revived work on glasses through Android XR partnerships, while Snap has doubled down on its own smart-glasses ambitions and this month confirmed Qualcomm chips for its upcoming devices. The competitive picture suggests a wider industry belief that wearables positioned between headphones and headsets could become the next major battleground in consumer electronics. Counterpoint Research said the global smart glasses market grew sharply in the second half of 2025, helped by Meta’s expansion and the arrival of more AI-led products.