Will Vision Air become Apple's 'Ray Ban'?

Published: 2025-04-19 03:01:07 ET AAPL

Apple is reportedly working on a Vision Air, an AR/VR pair of glasses that would be suitable for everyday use and can work with an iPhone or Mac. With that, Apple is abandoning its ambitions of true AR glasses in favor of a lightweight headset. There are also rumors of a separate pair of smart glasses reminiscent of the Ray Ban.

According to a source who spoke to Bloomberg, CEO Tim Cook is fully focused on developing the glasses, not least because they are the first truly visionary product to come to fruition under his leadership since the death of Steve Jobs.

Apple finally released the Vision Pro in 2024 after years of development. The headset offers both virtual and augmented reality experiences: thanks to a series of cameras on the device, including cameras that track your eye movements, you can immerse yourself in realistic virtual environments.

The product received good reviews, but nevertheless flopped because of its enormously high price of $3,500. In the Netherlands, the Vision Pro never even appeared. Plans for a successor have reportedly already been scrapped.

Meta, meanwhile, has been working on VR and AR technologies for quite some time. Facebook acquired Palmer Luckey's Oculus VR for $2 billion in 2014, and released its first consumer VR headset, the Oculus Rift, two years later in 2016.

Meta actually began laying the groundwork for AR experiences back in 2017, but its hardware plans really took shape when it released Ray-Ban Stories in 2021, lightweight smart glasses with built-in cameras and audio. Last year it unveiled smart augmented reality glasses called Orion, but those are still in development.

Meta is also expected to unveil this year the Meta Quest 3s, a cheaper version of the Quest 3, for about 290 euros.

Tim Cook would now like to beat Meta with his own Ray Ban. According to fairly concrete leaks, these are lightweight, minimalist glasses with basic AR functionality. Unlike the Vision Pro, it would not have its own powerful processor. Instead, you can connect it to external devices, such as your Mac or iPhone, for example, to watch a movie in 3D.

What exactly is in store at Apple remains unclear. Some sources speak of glasses similar to the Ray-Ban smartglasses, yet other sources speak specifically of the Vision Air as a variant of Vision Pro. So they could also be separate trajectories.

Confusion remains about that. As recently as February, Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman reported that Apple had stopped developing AR glasses to serve as virtual screens for Macs. The device was originally planned for 2027, but would not meet expectations. The Apple glasses would be similar to Xreal One and Lenovo ThinkReality. Originally, the glasses could be paired with an iPhone, Bloomberg reports. Because of problems with the device's processing power and battery life, the focus was shifted to the Mac.

Although Apple rarely announces new hardware during its developer conference in June, some are not ruling out presenting the Vision Air there anyway. This new model would appear later this year and possibly cost up to $1,500.

Photo: Jan Macarol / Ai art