Apple Plans to Turn Future Smart Glasses, Headsets Into Health and Fitness Tracking Devices: Report

Apple Vision Pro, the Cupertino-based tech giant's first augmented reality (AR) headset, was launched in 2023. With it, the company entered a new product category, bringing the “mixed reality” experience to its users. Soon after its launch, reports regarding Apple's smart glasses started surfacing online, which would mark its entry into another wearable category. Now, a report highlights that the company is planning to turn the future versions of smart glasses and headsets into health and fitness tracking devices. The tech giant reportedly intended to offer similar features with the Apple Vision Pro initially. However, Apple could have decided against it due to “technological hurdles”.

Apple's Plans for Future Smart Glasses, Headsets (Expected)

In the latest edition of his weekly newsletter ‘Power On', Bloomberg's Mark Gurman writes that the Tim Cook-led tech giant plans to eventually transform future Apple smart glasses and AR headsets into health and fitness tracking devices. However, the tech giant reportedly does not plan to bring the said functionalities with the first-generation smart glasses, which are expected to launch next year.

Interestingly, Apple reportedly wanted to introduce the health and fitness tracking features with the Apple Vision Pro, which was launched globally in June 2023 as the tech giant's first AR headset. The company was reportedly also planning to develop a new Apple Fitness+ version that could run on the Vision Pro, while allowing users to wear the headset during workouts and follow instructions. The Apple Vision Pro could have also analysed body movements to track different fitness metrics.

However, the tech giant reportedly decided not to bring the health and fitness tracking capabilities to the Apple Vision Pro due to “technological hurdles” and the increased weight of the headset. With the future smart glasses, Apple will reportedly equip the wearable with a “range of sensors” to record health and fitness-related data and the user's movements to offer the functionalities. The company is said to be currently exploring different ways it can implement this with the smaller form factor of smart glasses.

Apple's Vision Products Group is also hiring a “strategic product design leader”, which reportedly indicates its future plans for smart glasses and headsets. With AirPods newly added hearing aid capabilities and the existing health and fitness tracking features of the Apple Watch models, the future smart eyewear from the tech giant could complement and join the two Apple devices. Further, it might offer an edge over the existing players in the market, like Meta.

This comes shortly after a report highlighted that Apple has delayed the launch of its smart glasses from the second half of this year to the first half of next year. The Tim Cook-led tech giant is now expected to unveil the wearables during the keynote presentation of the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2027. This is said to offer developers additional time to build and test apps before the smart glasses are launched.