We all know how much Apple fans love being involved in every aspect of the “ecosystem”, whether its the iPhone, Airpods or whatever else that comes with the name attached. As we all await the grand reveal of the iPhone 12 lineup expected later this year, it seems like you might have one more product to buy or yet just admire from them.
For quite some time now, techies around the world have been talking about Apple’s plans to create augmented reality glasses. Whether this was Apple’s original plan or a response to public demand, it seems like this is really close to finally become official.
After a long wait, the talk of the glasses has now been brought back thanks to well-known tech YouTuber Jon Prosser who took to his channel to detail exclusive leaks so far around the product. This included the expected delay of the iPhone 12 launch from the normal September date to October.
According to Jon, Apple is officially working on Apple Glass, whose prototype he claimed to have already seen. He went further to state that the glasses will likely launch at a $499 (about KES 50,000) basic starting price. Such a cost would obviously be shocking if it turned out to be true, coming from a company that sells wheels for KES 70,000.
We've been talking for YEARS about Apple's AR glasses! Speculation, crazy concepts, articles, videos…
I've been quietly working on this for a while!
Here's your first exclusive leak dump for "Apple Glass" ??
More to come!https://t.co/3q3DhpLKBU pic.twitter.com/OfDBV9PAKy
— Jon Prosser (@jon_prosser) May 19, 2020
Similar to the first generation of the Apple Watch, the Apple Glass will not be a totally independent device. One will need to connect them to an iPhone that will then be used to store all its data.
Additionally, the glasses could possibly be announced on Q4 this year. If that does not happen with everything that’s going on, we could possibly see its announcement delayed to the early months of 2021. Keep in mind that this will not be the official launch as that could drag all the way to Q4 2021 or maybe even Q1 2022.
You can now only imagine what kind of design Apple will choose with these AR glasses. A super-advanced futuristic look, right? Well, don’t get your hopes up. Jon Prosser describes that the glasses he saw were quite basic with plastic frames.
That is not to say that this will be the final design as the build quality could change during the development process. But Apple is likely to snub crazy concepts as they are meant to look more like just normal glasses and not intimidating tech.
The prototype also featured a LiDAR scanner but no cameras, but that could also change. They also feature wireless charging, a UI named “Starboard” as well as gesture control. With the LiDAR scanner, it will be hard to deny that Apple wants the glasses to be used for scanning QR codes.
Unfortunately, the glasses will likely not function as sunglasses as the team is allegedly finding it hard to tint the lenses.
With all that you know right now, the main question would be whether we will ever see Kenyans wearing them on the street, that is if they ever make it to the market. The other question obviously is how many Kenyans would be willing to buy glasses for more than KES 50k but let’s not ask that. AR glasses from other brands have been here for a while but have always been classified as a product for the niche market that no one has ever really made them a main point of conversation.
But maybe now, Apple will finally push them to mainstream levels and we will start seeing other companies following suit. That’s right, we’re talking to you Samsung.
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