Apple plans to release an augmented-reality device in 2021, according to a trusted analyst. This could be the AR glasses that were the subject of so many rumors in 2020.
Apple prognosticator Ming-Chi Kuo said in a note to investors Monday that the Mac-maker is working on an AR device, but didn’t go into details.
Apple augmented-reality glasses coming in 2021?
A prime candidate is glasses for viewing augmented reality or virtual reality. These would allow the wearer to do almost everything they do now with an iPhone, but through a heads-up display held in front of their eyes. Information would be overlaid onto the real world, not replace it.
Kuo previously said Apple is developing AR glasses, and so have others, like frequent leaker Jon Prosser, who predicts they’ll be called Apple Glass.
However, Kuo, an analyst with TF International Securities, said last spring he did not expect the Apple AR glasses to arrive until 2022 or later. Others dispute that, indicating they the product will launch in 2021.
But Apple Glass isn’t the only option. In his note released Monday, Kuo only talked about an unspecified augmented reality device. That could also describe the iPhone 12 and 2020 iPad Pro, both of which have built-in time-of-flight Lidar sensors for augmented reality uses.