The Future of Apple Augmented Reality Smartglasses & the Android Copies to Follow

You can almost detect the collective breath-holding of the augmented reality industry as it waits for Apple’s inevitable entry. A new Apple wearable built with augmented reality technology is likely the device that will finally make the smartphone take a backseat.

Apple’s forthcoming (though not officially announced) AR smartglasses will be the company’s follow-up to its first wearable, the Apple Watch in 2015 (yes, that was only three years ago), and will set off a chain reaction in the smartglasses industry that’s already begun in Asia.

Although devices like North’s Focals — the closest example we’ve seen of fashionable, mainstream-friendly AR smart glasses (albeit only capable of 2D, non-immersive graphics) — have beaten Apple to the spotlight of public scrutiny, the wearable AR market is still Apple’s to dominate. Essentially, North’s Focals took the Google Glass concept and put it in a far more stylish frame. And while North’s example might be the path Apple takes, it seems unlikely that the company would devote so much time and attention to ARKit — a platform that supports 3D, immersive AR content — and then release an AR wearable that doesn’t truly take advantage of the developer community and apps developed using ARKit.