Apple has reportedly terminated the development of its augmented reality glasses project, despite previous fanfare.
According to a report on Taiwanese trade publication, DigiTimes, Apple will “terminate the development of AR/VR headsets, and the relevant R&D team has been disbanded and distributed to other product lines”.
Reports suggest that the beginning of the end was the departure of Apple designer and AR glasses team lead Avi Bar-Zeev in January.
However, an update of the same report noted that Apple has instead “temporarily stopped” developing the new technology, suggesting that Apple could always revisit the idea in the near future.
The report claims some of the issues the team faced include struggling to make the glasses light enough, not being able to incorporate 5G networking, and the company unable to provide enough AR content for the glasses.
Apple has been exploring AR/VR technologies for more than 10 years based on patent filings.
Whilst the report remains preliminary findings, further information about Apple’s AR efforts are tipped to be unveiled later this year.
CEO Tim Cook has even talked up the prospect of AR technology several times, calling AR technology as profound because “the technology amplifies human performance instead of isolating humans”.
The company has been heavily pushing for AR technology initiatives to developers over the past three Worldwide Developers Conferences.
Just this week, the company announced the opening of an app design and development assistance office in China, which will notably begin with AR-focused educational sessions.
