Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
A leaked Meta product roadmap shows the company releasing its first version of augmented reality glasses in 2024, as Alex Heath scooped in The Verge.
- "Employees are racing to deliver the first generation by 2024 and are already working on a lighter, more advanced design for 2026, followed by a third version in 2028," Heath reports.
Why it matters: The AR glasses project, known as Nazare inside Meta, is a key part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's plan to reorient the tech giant from social networking to metaverse building.
The intrigue: Per The Verge, Meta plans to bundle the new glasses with a nerve-reading wristband for controlling them, a project Axios previously reported.
Separately: Apple, too, has long been rumored to be developing its own VR or AR hardware in the form of glasses or a headset (or something as-yet-unimagined).
- Each of the past several years, Apple-watchers have speculated that this product is ready to debut, but the company, as always, has stayed mum.
- The test code for the next upgrade of iOS, though, is reportedly "chock-full of references" to the new hardware, per Bloomberg — suggesting that Apple is finally closing in on a release over the next year or two.