Meta CEO and billionaire Mark Zuckerberg stated that he wants to make Meta's upcoming augmented reality or AR glasses an "iPhone moment" to cast him and the tech company in a new light.
Meta Prepares for the Launch of AR Glasses
According to The Verge, Meta released its roadmap for its AR glasses on Wednesday, Apr. 13. The tech company's roadmap includes four different versions of the glasses to be released next six years.
The report stated that Meta's first-generation AR glasses, called Nazare, will be designed to work independently from a smartphone using a wireless device that offloads parts of the computing needed for the AR glasses to work.
A feature of the wireless and phone-like device will be the ability for users to communicate with and interact with holograms of other users, which is similar to the scenes presented in a video in October 2021 announcing Facebook's rebrand to Meta.
The report also says that Meta wants to deliver the first-generation model of its AR glasses by 2024, and its target audience is developers and early adopters.
Also, the tech company plans to release a pair of affordable smart glasses in 2024. These smart glasses, also called Hypernova, will be paired up with a smartphone and will be able to show incoming messages and other notifications in its heads-up display.
According to MacRumors, Meta's AR roadmap also includes a lighter and advanced version of the Nazare glasses to be introduced in 2026. A third version of the glasses will follow this in 2028.
If the release of the AR glasses becomes a success, Zuckerberg reportedly hopes that they will cast Meta and himself in a new light and make the tech company innovative again.
A former employee told The Verge that "Zuckerberg's ego" is intertwined with these glasses.
However, Meta will have to go up against another tech giant, Apple, as the company also plans to release its own AR glasses.
Apple is reportedly working on at least two AR projects that include AR headsets. These headsets are set to be released in late 2022 or early 2023. This is then followed by a pair of AR glasses to be released in late 2022.
Apple's AR and VR headset was first rumored to come out in 2022, but there are development and manufacturing issues that Apple needs to work on.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman have said that the Apple AR headset will have an early 2023 launch date, with the AR glasses to follow in 2024 or 2025, that is if Apple won't have any manufacturing issues again.
What Makes Meta's AR Glasses Different?
According to CNET, Meta has been describing its AR glasses as a device that will make hosting virtual family game nights possible.
The AR glasses will allow interactions with holograms, although the tech company did not specify how these holograms will be presented.
The AR glasses are a part of Meta's push for metaverse, a digital world wherein Meta users from around the world can interact.
In 2022, it was reported that Meta canceled its operating system for its AR/VR hardware.
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Written by Sophie Webster
