Apple Enters the AI Glasses Race After Vision Pro Pause
Extended Reality (XR) technologies have revolutionised the way humans interact with devices and the world around them.
With smart glasses driving market growth to new highs and Meta dominating the space since the launch of the second generation Meta Ray-Ban glasses, the race to capture consumer attention has intensified.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), Meta seized 60.6% of the combined AR/VR + displayless smart glasses market in the second quarter of 2025.
Apple’s Vision Pro headset, released back in 2024, has struggled to compete with its cheaper rivals, such as the Meta Quest.
This has now forced the tech giant to reportedly pause its Vision Pro overhaul, reallocating its resources towards the development of AI-powered smart glasses.
It comes as Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the company's new Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses at Meta Connect.
What is Extended Reality (XR)?
Extended Reality encompasses a spectrum of immersive technologies that blur the boundaries between the physical and the digital worlds.
By no means a new idea, the term was coined by Steve Mann and Charles Wyckoff back in 1991, and today serves as an umbrella concept for Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR).
Augmented Reality (AR) lies closest to the physical world in the reality-virtuality continuum, where digital elements are embedded into the real environment.
On the other end is Virtual Reality, wherein the physical environment is completely replaced with a digital space immersing the user in a simulated world.
Mixed Reality is a best of both worlds approach, where elements from both the digital and physical world co-exists and can interact with each other.
Meta Quest, Apple’s Vision Pro, Microsoft’s Holo Lens and the Magic Leap are some of the major Mixed Reality headsets shaping today’s XR landscape.
What are AI glasses?
Smart glasses integrated with AI is an advancement in wearable technology that allows hands-free, context-aware interaction with the digital world.
Users can take photos, reply to messages, navigate or translate foreign languages, all without breaking engagement with their physical surroundings.
In his keynote address at Meta Connect, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that “glasses are the ideal form factor for personal superintelligence, because they let you stay present in the moment while giving access to all the AI capabilities that make you smarter.”
He also added that the sales trajectory for AI glasses compare to that of the most popular electronic products of all time.
What is the future of XR?
According to a Markets and Markets report, the Extended Reality(XR) market is projected to grow more than double its size from $37.94 bn in 2025 to $84.86 bn by 2029.
This explosive growth trajectory is owed to the adoption of XR technologies by the commercial, educational, industrial, medical, entertainment and, gaming sectors.
While initially reliant heavily on the gaming industry, surprising new use cases of XR technologies are constantly being discovered.
