Apple is accelerating a broad hardware push into artificial-intelligence-powered wearables, testing three distinct form factors that would push many phone functions onto accessories. The company is developing a high-end smart glasses model, a small pendant-style camera and microphone accessory designed to clip to clothing or hang as a necklace, and AirPods upgraded with stronger AI capabilities — all built around an upgraded Siri and a new emphasis on what Apple calls “visual context awareness.”
Those devices are built to work closely with the iPhone rather than to replace it. Apple’s strategy, as described by people familiar with the plans, is to tether camera-equipped wearables to the phone for most heavy computation, using the accessories primarily as persistent sensors — “the phone’s eyes and ears.” The different designs reflect a tiered approach: glasses with high-resolution imaging and computer-vision sensors aimed at richer real-time scene understanding, and simpler pendant and earbud variants with low-resolution cameras intended to support AI features rather than traditional photography.
Apple’s most advanced project is a glasses prototype codenamed N50. Engineers have been testing multiple prototypes and the company aims to begin production as early as December 2026 with a public launch in 2027. The N50 will omit an integrated display, relying instead on speakers, microphones and dual cameras — one for detailed imaging and one optimised for depth and environment mapping — to provide hands-free Siri interactions, object recognition, contextual reminders and navigational cues tied to real-world landmarks.
The pendant concept comes from Apple’s industrial-design team and resembles the Humane AI Pin in function but not form. Rather than being a standalone computer, Apple’s pendant is pitched as an iPhone accessory that supplies continuous audio and visual sensing; size is said to be comparable to an AirTag and possible wearing modes include a clip or necklace. The project remains at an early stage and could be shelved, but if greenlit Apple could ship it as soon as 2027.
Apple has also explored putting cameras into AirPods, a project reportedly underway since 2024 that would fuse audio and visual inputs for expanded AI features such as live translation and contextual assistance. Incremental AI upgrades to AirPods are already arriving — last year’s real-time translation mode was a preview — and a camera-equipped version could appear as early as 2026.
Beyond personal wearables, Apple is pursuing a broader household AI hardware strategy: smart displays running an enhanced Siri, larger screens with mechanical arms, upgraded HomePod speakers and small indoor sensors for home automation and security. These moves suggest Apple sees a multi-device future in which intelligence is distributed across phones, wearables and home products rather than concentrated in a single handset.
The push follows a mixed reception to Apple’s previous attempt at a new hardware category. The Vision Pro headset, lauded for engineering but priced for niche buyers, failed to win mass-market traction; the company now appears to be betting that smaller, cheaper and more passive wearables will reach a broader audience. The wider context is fierce competition: Meta has made early advances with camera-equipped glasses, OpenAI is exploring wearable prototypes, and startups such as Humane have drawn attention with AI pins and always-on assistants.
Apple’s success will depend less on industrial design than on software: Siri needs substantial upgrades, and the devices will only be convincing if backed by robust on-device or cloud AI that preserves user privacy. Apple’s decision to tether many of these wearables to the iPhone reduces power and processing burdens but raises questions about independence, latency and user experience when the phone is not present.
There are also regulatory and social hurdles. Small cameras clipped to clothing or carried ubiquitously invite scrutiny on privacy and surveillance from regulators and the public alike, especially in jurisdictions with strict data-protection rules. Apple’s privacy brand may help, but any misstep in transparency or security could provoke political and commercial backlash.
If executed well, Apple’s three-pronged wearable strategy could reconfigure how consumers interact with AI by shifting routine, context-aware functions off the phone and onto always-on peripherals, reinforcing the company’s ecosystem lock-in and creating new hardware and services revenue streams. If execution falters — through delayed AI upgrades, poor battery life, uncomfortable designs or regulatory pushback — the initiatives may join other high-profile Apple experiments that never reached mass adoption.