Apple Smart Glasses Delay to Late 2027 Hands Meta a Bigger Lead

Apple’s first smart glasses will not reach buyers until late 2027, close to a year later than the company had planned, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The face-worn device was on track for a 2026 unveiling and an early-2027 shipping date before development snags pushed the whole schedule back, Gurman reported in his Power On newsletter on Sunday, citing people familiar with the project.

The slip is a small headline and a large problem. Every quarter Apple stays on the sidelines is a quarter its rivals keep banking, and the rival in front already owns most of the market it is trying to enter.

Cameras, Speakers and a Siri That Can See

The product Apple still wants to build is a lightweight pair of glasses packed with cameras for photos and video, microphones and speakers for calls and music, and a multimodal version of Siri that can answer spoken requests and react to what the wearer is looking at. Gurman says the glasses will land in the $200 to $500 range in the United States, putting them squarely against the camera-equipped eyewear already on store shelves.

Design is where Apple wants to separate itself. Gurman reports the company is testing several looks rather than a single hero frame:

• A large rectangular style close to the Ray-Ban Wayfarer silhouette
• A slimmer rectangular frame
• A larger oval or circular design
• A smaller oval or circular option, with oval-shaped cameras and color choices meant to stand out

The push has serious backing inside Apple. People close to Tim Cook, Apple’s outgoing chief executive, tell Gurman the glasses are his top priority. John Ternus, who takes over as chief executive in September, has personally led the product team for the past two years and is described as the driving force behind the effort. What the first version will not have, according to the report, is an in-lens augmented reality (AR, graphics layered over the real world) display. That is a feature Apple is not expected to ship for at least a few more years.

The Siri Problem Behind the Slip

The holdup is not the hardware. It is the software meant to make the hardware worth wearing. Gurman reports that Apple’s revamped Siri remains on track for later this year, but the deeper visual intelligence features, the ability for the assistant to understand and respond to a live camera feed, are proving far harder to finish. Executives chose to wait rather than ship something half-baked.

That caution fits a company still cleaning up after an awkward stretch in artificial intelligence. Apple has leaned on outside help to steady its assistant, including a reworked Siri that draws partly on Apple’s redesigned Siri built on Google’s Gemini across 2.5 billion devices. A camera that can reason about the world in real time is a steeper climb than a chatbot, and glasses live or die on whether the assistant feels instant.

So the delay is defensible on its own terms. A clumsy debut would be worse than a late one. The trouble is that the clock does not stop while Apple polishes.

Meta Banked Another Year of Dominance

While Apple worked the lab, Meta turned smart glasses into an actual business. Its Ray-Ban line has become the default answer to the question of what a good pair of AI glasses looks like, and the sales reflect it.

The market data tells the story cleanly:

• 82% of the global smart glasses market belonged to Meta in the second half of 2025, per Counterpoint Research
• 139% year over year was how fast global shipments grew over that same stretch
• More than seven million pairs of Ray-Ban glasses sold in 2025 alone, by Google’s own accounting of the field
• The category was worth roughly $1.93 billion in 2024 and is tracked toward a 60% compound annual growth rate through 2029

Counterpoint’s reading shows the lead widening, not holding steady. In the first half of 2025 Meta sat near 73% share as the market grew 110%, according to the firm’s tally of first-half smart glasses shipments. By the back half it had pushed past four-fifths of the market, even as Xiaomi and other newcomers piled in, per the firm’s second-half shipment data. Meta is not just first; it is pulling away. And it keeps adding features Apple will have to match, including Meta’s $799 Ray-Ban Display and its wrist-worn Neural Band, which now lets owners write messages by tracing letters in the air.

Google and Samsung Crash the Category This Fall

Meta is no longer the only company Apple has to worry about. At its developer conference in May, Google confirmed that the first glasses built on Android XR, its extended reality (XR, a catch-all for AR and virtual reality) platform, will arrive this fall, well ahead of Apple’s late-2027 target.

The lineup is deliberately broad. Google built the platform with Samsung and Qualcomm, partnered with eyewear names Gentle Monster and Warby Parker for the frames, and made the glasses work with both Android phones and iPhones. Gemini handles the agentic work, the multi-step tasks like ordering a coffee, while the glasses act as the voice and camera up front. Google laid out the plan in its announcement of Gemini-powered Android XR eyewear.

Here is how the three big players line up as Apple’s clock runs down:

The cross-platform twist matters most. By working on iPhones, Google’s glasses can reach Apple’s own customers more than a year before Apple offers them an alternative.

A Late-but-Polished Playbook Meets a Tougher Market

Apple bulls have a ready answer to all of this, and it has history behind it. Apple did not invent the MP3 player, the smartphone or the smartwatch. It arrived late to each, refined the experience, and walked away with the profits while early movers faded. The iPhone landed years after the first smartphones; the Apple Watch followed Fitbit and Pebble and now leads the category.

Gurman frames Apple’s ambition in those long-game terms.

Over time, Apple believes the glasses could evolve into a health device and eventually incorporate augmented reality technologies capable of improving how people see.

That is the optimistic case, and it is not unreasonable. The catch is the math of this particular market. When the iPhone shipped, no rival held 80% of anything. Here, one competitor already controls four-fifths of shipments, a second is launching with the world’s most-used phone platform behind it, and the whole field is compounding at double and triple digits. Coming late works when the leaders are weak and the market is small. Both of those conditions are slipping away while Apple waits.

What the Wait Costs Cupertino

The delay does not doom Apple’s glasses. The company has the brand, the supply chain and an installed base of more than two billion devices to plug into. A polished product in late 2027 can still sell.

But it will arrive into a category that has already chosen its early favorites, with developers, accessories and habits forming around Meta and Google rather than Apple. The price of patience is not the product; it is the head start everyone else gets to keep.

If Apple’s glasses launch on time and feel a generation ahead, the late entry becomes another chapter in the familiar story. If they slip again, or arrive merely competitive, Apple will have ceded the most exciting hardware category in years to the two companies it least wanted to hand it to.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Will Apple’s Smart Glasses Be Released?

Apple is now targeting a consumer release in late 2027, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The glasses were previously expected to be announced in 2026 and ship in early 2027 before development problems pushed the timeline back by roughly a year.

How Much Will Apple’s Smart Glasses Cost?

Gurman reports the glasses will compete in the $200 to $500 range in the United States. That positions them against existing camera-equipped smart glasses rather than against pricier mixed-reality headsets.

Will Apple’s First Smart Glasses Have an AR Display?

No. Gurman does not expect Apple’s first glasses to include an in-lens augmented reality display, a feature he says the company is unlikely to add for at least a few years. The first model focuses on cameras, audio and a visual version of Siri.

What Will Apple’s Smart Glasses Be Able to Do?

The glasses are expected to include cameras for photos and video, microphones and speakers for calls, notifications and music, and a multimodal Siri that can respond to voice requests and interpret what the wearer sees. Apple also believes they could later grow into a health device.

Who Leads the Smart Glasses Market Right Now?

Meta leads by a wide margin. Counterpoint Research reported the company held about 82% of global smart glasses shipments in the second half of 2025, in a market that grew 139% year over year over that period.

When Do Google and Samsung’s Smart Glasses Launch?

Google and Samsung confirmed their first Android XR glasses, powered by Gemini, will arrive in fall 2026. The frames are made with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker and work with both Android phones and iPhones.