Apple CEO Tim Cook has a new obsession
Apple insider Mark Gurman reveals in the latest edition of his newsletter Power On that CEO Tim Cook has a new obsession. Sources from within the company report that Cook is focused on beating Meta to the market with an industry-leading pair of smart AR (Augmented Reality) glasses.
Apple’s foray into the XR (Extended Reality) industry did not go smoothly. Though the Apple Vision Pro is one of the best AR headsets available today it failed to meet sales expectations. This was mostly due to the fact that the headset costs $3,499 and even more in other regions outside the U.S.
Nevertheless Apple is convinced — much like Meta, Samsung and Google — that XR is the future of computing. The company has been working on a pair of smart AR glasses for a long time. In fact the Apple Vision Pro was a compromise due to the technological limitations of today. Apple just wanted to get a foot in the door as other VR headsets like the Meta Quest 3 gained popularity.
But the dream of smart AR glasses — capable of good battery life and intuitive operation — is nearing reality. Last year Meta unveiled Orion: a pair of AR smart glasses that the company has been working towards for a decade. Orion is what Meta hopes to make publicly available some day in the near future. The idea is a pair of glasses that completely replace traditional smartphones.
Tim Cook is determined to make sure that Apple is the first company to publicly release a viable candidate for this AR future. If Gurman’s sources are accurate then Cook has made these glasses a top priority for Apple.
Apple’s foray into the XR (Extended Reality) industry did not go smoothly. Though the Apple Vision Pro is one of the best AR headsets available today it failed to meet sales expectations. This was mostly due to the fact that the headset costs $3,499 and even more in other regions outside the U.S.
But the dream of smart AR glasses — capable of good battery life and intuitive operation — is nearing reality. Last year Meta unveiled Orion: a pair of AR smart glasses that the company has been working towards for a decade. Orion is what Meta hopes to make publicly available some day in the near future. The idea is a pair of glasses that completely replace traditional smartphones.
Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses were also a commercial success. | Video credit — Meta
Tim Cook is determined to make sure that Apple is the first company to publicly release a viable candidate for this AR future. If Gurman’s sources are accurate then Cook has made these glasses a top priority for Apple.
Tim cares about nothing else. It’s the only thing he’s really spending his time on from a product development standpoint.
— Power On, April 2025
As a staunch advocate of this AR future I am very excited to see what Apple is working on behind its doors. However recent disappointments with Apple Intelligence also make me wary and I wonder whether Cook’s dream of beating Meta is feasible at all.
If Apple’s vision doesn’t pan out and Meta runs into problems then we still have Google and Samsung to look to. Google is also very interested in making AI-powered AR smart glasses and Samsung is about to re-enter the industry with Project Moohan. All in all some very interesting years lie ahead for the tech industry.
If Apple’s vision doesn’t pan out and Meta runs into problems then we still have Google and Samsung to look to. Google is also very interested in making AI-powered AR smart glasses and Samsung is about to re-enter the industry with Project Moohan. All in all some very interesting years lie ahead for the tech industry.
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