Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reports that Apple’s augmented reality glasses are still at least four years away from hitting shelves. Gurman’s comments came in a report about some of the challenges Apple faces in developing its mixed-reality headset.
Gurman noted that Apple’s separate AR glasses product has been hit with similar issues. The AR glasses project is intended to result in the product that company CEO Tim Cook and former design chief Jony Ive originally wanted to create before technical limitations led them to develop the current “ski-goggle” AR/VR headset form factor with video pass-through.
One of the hang-ups in the project came when Apple employees realized early in the headset’s development that the company’s goal of building sufficiently powered AR glasses was unfeasible. Engineers have calculated that the glasses would be required to provide the full performance of an iPhone while consuming only a tenth of its power consumption to prevent the from overheating.
Mike Rockwell, a former Dolby executive hired to spearhead the development of experimental head-worn devices at Apple, says the headset is laying the foundations for Apple’s future AR glasses. The project currently receives only limited resources.
An employee working on the project told Bloomberg that a running joke on the team says that it continues to work on the “hopeless” project simply to please Tim Cook.
The company is now said to be at least four years away from introducing any such product.
(Via MacRumors)