Apple AR smartglasses have been cancelled, according to new report

Apple has reportedly terminated development of its AR smartglasses, which the company was rumoured to be launching in the next two years.

That's the word from Digitimes, which has been hit and miss when reporting about the inner workings of Apple in the past. According to the report, the team was disbanded in May and reassigned to other projects.

Essential reading: Best augmented reality glasses to buy

The report, which has now been translated, suggests that the team behind building the glasses could not successfully come up with the necessary lightweight design and that there was issues with 5G networking support.

It also speculates that the AR glasses team was disbanded when project lead Avi Bar-Zeev left the company earlier this year. Bar-Zeev previously worked at Microsoft and helped bring HoloLens to life.

If this information is all accurate, it would be both a surprise and a disappointment in equal measures. After Google tried and failed to break into the mainstream with Glass, we've been waiting for a heavyweight tech company to prove that good AR smartglasses can exist.

North recently appeared with a pair of stylish smart specs, and other companies are trying to get AR glasses off the ground, but all eyes were on Apple to truly legitimize the category.

Apple's hiring moves, among speculation from usually-reliable sources, suggested it was gearing up to launch its own smart eyewear. It's also been making big improvements to its ARKit platform, which is largely accessible through Apple's smartphones and tablets.

Cancellation has already struck Apple this year after it decided to cancel its AirPower charging mat for not meeting its own standards.

We must stress, that this is still an unconfirmed report, but hopefully more details will emerge in the not too distant future.

Via: MacRumors