Apple’s Next Bet Is Not AI, Tim Cook Is ‘Obsessed’ About Meta-Like Smart AR Glasses

Apple’s AI journey has hit a speed breaker with the delayed Siri release to 2026 but that does not stop the trillion dollar valued tech giant. This week reports say Tim Cook and Co. are obsessed about making another big segment work for the brand, and it has eyes set on competing or even beating Meta in the wearable space. 

Mark Gurman in his latest newsletter has talked about Apple’s big interest in the smart AR glasses market, where we already have Meta Ray Ban smart glasses. 

Vision Pro Not The Real Plan 

Apple made the $3,299 priced Vision Pro which showed the company’s obvious premium credentials but apart from the early craze, the sale numbers didn’t say much about the product’s overall value. And the new report from Gurman says the Vision Pro was never the endgame for the company, and it always wanted to focus on making lightweight AR glasses that last long. 

Apple clearly sees Meta as its closest rival in this space even though Google and Samsung have their own Android XR plans coming through in the near future. But Cook is making his mission to beat Meta to its own AR smart glasses. “It’s the only thing he’s really spending his time on from a product development standpoint," Bloomberg quotes a source saying in the report. 

The plans are definite but the development process is likely to take a few years before Apple has a market-ready product with a compelling set of applications and yes, the need to make sense of the device for the users. 

The company also could focus on making the AR glasses far more accessible than the Vision Pro in terms of price point and that is going to be one of the many challenges that Apple faces to become a winner. Going by the interest around the regular AR glasses, it looks clear that this segment is likely to boom in the next few years and Apple, like its rivals, wants a pie of the market.