The post-iPhone era: Apple in search of its next revolution

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Seventeen years and five months after completely transforming the mobile industry with the iPhone, Apple is struggling to identify its next flagship product. While AirPods, the Apple Watch and the iPad generate considerable revenue, none have matched the societal impact of the Apple smartphone. However, the Californian firm's quest to find a worthy successor to the iPhone seems to be moving towards smart glasses, an ambitious project that could require another five years of development. Could the historic feat of 2007 be repeated??

Smart glasses, the natural heirs of the smartphone ?

Since the introduction of Google Glass in 2012, the augmented reality (AR) glasses sector has emerged as the most promising territory to revolutionize our digital uses. Even if, at the time, Google really failed to transform the test; a failure that can be explained by several factors (see below, in the second part).

Mark Gurman, a journalist at Bloomberg and an eminent specialist in the Cupertino firm, reports that Apple is actively pursuing the development of its own AR glasses. Information that he distilled in his weekly newsletter Power On. The principle: superimposing virtual information on our vision of the real world, like the Live View option of Google Maps which displays navigation instructions directly on the filmed environment.

A promising market, but still in its infancy

Apple's entry into the VR/AR sector has not been easy. Its first product, the very expensive Apple Vision Pro, did not meet with the expected success and sales continue to decline. Our test of the product revealed major flaws that constituted serious obstacles to purchase: a prohibitive price, insufficient autonomy, a device that was not very comfortable to wear and, finally, not very convincing in the use that could be made of it. More than enough to be eclipsed by the competition.

According to Gurman, the company will have to solve a fairly complex technical equation to allow itself to launch truly relevant AR glasses. A lightweight device, with satisfactory battery life, capable of integrating high-performance screens while remaining affordable to purchase.

The example of Google Glass is a real ghost for Apple, which will remind it of the pitfalls to avoid: exorbitant price, controversial design, lack of useful applications and privacy issues. Indeed, these could record videos and take photos discreetly without anyone, except the wearer, noticing.

While Google and especially Meta with its Ray Bans, seem much more advanced in the race for AR glasses, Apple, unsurprisingly, wants to maintain its high quality standards for its future product. The company could need three to five more years before presenting a product that meets its requirements, according to information from Bloomberg. When you can claim to have “reinvented the phone” as Steve Jobs so aptly put it in 2007, delivering a device that will also establish a new paradigm is an even more difficult undertaking.Apple is looking to create a new flagship product that can rival the impact of the iPhone.

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