As 2024 wraps up, the leading XR device vendors, such as Meta, HTC VIVE, XREAL, Apple, and others, are attempting to lead the marketplace into the holiday period, with early AR smart glasses and emerging MR headsets reaching more consumers and, therefore, businesses.
However, as the market determines the holiday foothold, Apple and OpenAI appear to be pushing for a lead for advanced AR smart glasses leading into 2025 and beyond.
While AR smart glasses for enterprises and consumers already exist on the market via firms like Vuzix, Meta Ray-Ban, and XREAL, some of which are experiencing great sales success, next-generation AR smart glasses—as teased by Project Orion—are expected to lead the market going into the second half of the decade.
Recently, news outlets have highlighted how technology leaders Apple and OpenAI are moving towards AR smart glasses, following the 2024 boost in interest for the immersive hardware sector.
OpenAI Looks Towards AR Smart Glasses
Recently, Caitlin Kalinowski Meta’s Former Head of AR Glasses Hardware—including the development of Orion—shifted gears, leaving Zuckerberg’s company to become a member of OpenAI’s technical staff, which covers work on robots and consumer hardware.
In a X post, Kalinowski said:
I’m delighted to share that I’m joining OpenAI to lead robotics and consumer hardware! In my new role, I will initially focus on OpenAI’s robotics work and partnerships to help bring AI into the physical world and unlock its benefits for humanity.
As Kalinowski noted, their professional shift aims to cover robotics but also bring “AI into the physical world,” perhaps suggesting an AR device. The news comes after OpenAI hired ex-Apple iPhone leader Jony Ive last year to design an emerging hardware product that boosts the firm’s AI platform.
Last year’s OpenAI hiring, combined with Kalinowski’s move, could be a sign that the leading AI firm is conducting R&D on an AI-enhanced AR device or something similar.
Notably, AR smart glasses are seen as a parallel consumer solution to boost AI’s abilities in everyday life. The successful AR-lite Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses are becoming a fairly open test bed for such technologies, with Meta highlighting new AI use cases during Connect 2024 a few months ago.
Moreover, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent 2024 highlighting the potential of AI-powered smart glasses, showing that Kalinowski would most likely bring deep research knowledge to OpenAI if the firm were to take on the AR smart glasses market.
Zuckerberg stated last month:
We also had several milestones around Reality Labs and the integration of AI in wearables. – Ray-Ban Meta glasses are the prime example here. They’re great-looking glasses that let you take photos and videos, listen to music, and take calls. But what makes them really special is the Meta AI integration. With our new updates, it will be able to not only answer your questions throughout the day, but also help you remember things, give you suggestions as you’re doing things using real-time multimodal AI, and even translate other languages right in your ear for you.
Despite apparent interest in AR smart glasses, news is still speculative to a degree, and if OpenAI commits to AR smart glasses, a product announcement may not come for many years.
Apple Gauges Interest in AR Smart Glasses
Apple shocked the technology industry earlier this year with Vision Pro. While shipments of the MR headset are low, and scepticism about the high-price device has not dwindled, Apple is pushing on with updates and most recently debuted the product in the UAE.
However, rumours about Apple’s next XR move are always swirling. Most recently, Bloomberg highlighted how Apple is seemingly researching AR smart glasses, following the 2024 trend.
According to reports, Apple is underway with a project named “Atlas,” a research project that seeks feedback from Apple employees and competitors on AR smart glasses.
Like OpenAI’s rumours of AR smart glasses, Apple’s next dip into XR hardware, MR headsets, or AR smart glasses may be years ahead. However, looking at the recent trend of interest in AR smart glasses, it is no surprise these leading technology firms are taking note.
