Apple connected glasses: a Chinese supplier puts us on the trail of several projects

Apple's future connected glasses could well arrive next year. One of its Chinese suppliers announced that it was participating in a project around connected glasses in its latest financial report.

There are more and more rumors surrounding Apple's connected glasses. Without a screen and wanting to compete with the Ray-Ban Meta, they would arrive at the end of 2027. Now, more tangible clues are appearing: this time, it is a financial report from an Apple supplier in China.

The story comes to us from the Chinese media iFeng: the company TCB Devices, indicated in its financial report for the third quarter of 2026 that it was participating in the “AI Glasses” and “new smart headphones” projects. Its order book is therefore full, particularly for the year 2027: these two projects should constitute a large part of its turnover. And this is where everything comes together: what if Apple was behind these big orders? The industrialization of connected glasses is in development at TCB Devices: this collaboration concerns precision welding and machine vision inspection.

Second product mentioned, AirPods equipped with cameras, which could also be launched at the end of 2027. Rumors about this product are already going well: these headphones would have low-resolution photo sensors in the stems which would allow you to use Siri with Apple Intelligence. Moreover, information on this product would have been spotted in the code of macOS 26.7.

For years, we have known that Apple is working on a first pair of connected glasses. It would therefore not be a new version of the Vision Pro. They would not have a screen and their objective would be to compete with the Ray-Ban Meta. These glasses would therefore only be used with a microphone and speakers, to communicate with Siri and Apple Intelligence. They also have cameras to take photos and videos, but also so that Siri/Apple Intelligence can analyze the environment: recognize places, translate text, help with navigation, etc.

Concerning the calendar, it would have shifted: first planned for the end of 2026, the glasses would have been postponed for the second half of 2027, then for the end of the year 2027. But Apple could decide to present them first during WWDC 2027, its developer conference scheduled for next June. Faced with competition from Meta and the myriad of other brands entering the sector, Apple no longer has a choice: it needs its connected glasses. And to capture market share, Apple can rely on its reputation, but also its user and software experience and its integration of Siri.

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Machine-translated from French