"Tech giant Apple is conducting an internal study, dubbed ‘Atlas’, to gather employee feedback on smart glasses currently available in the market," Bloomberg reported.

This initiative, part of the company's exploration into the smart glasses sector, involves focus groups led by Apple’s Product Systems Quality team.

The study, which began recently at the company's Cupertino headquarters, is aimed at understanding the smart glasses category.

"Testing and developing products that all can come to love is very important to what we do at Apple," the company in an email told the publication.

The publication previously reported that Apple was considering entering the smart glasses market, a move that could challenge Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses. However, any resulting product from Apple is anticipated to be several years away from launch.

The investment is expected to involve a factory at Bandung in southeast of Jakarta which develops products such as accessories and components for Apple devices. The proposal is said to be under review by Indonesia's Ministry of Industry, which enforced the ban due to Apple not meeting the 40% domestic content requirement. A decision on the proposal is expected soon.

Indonesia's stance on local manufacturing has affected other tech giants as well, with sales bans impacting Google Pixel phones and ByteDance's services until investment commitments were made. The latest development comes after Apple announced plans to invest approximately $1.5bn in satellite communications company Globalstar to expand iPhone satellite services. The deal between Apple and Globalstar involves a $1.1bn cash injection and a 20% equity stake for Apple, valued at $400m. Of this funding, more than $200m is designated to reduce Globalstar’s existing debt. (GlobalData)

Citations:

GlobalData. “Apple reportedly devising plans to enter smart glasses market.” Yahoo Finance, 5 November 2024, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-reportedly-devising-plans-enter-111926491.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9uZXdzLmdvb2dsZS5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALQncb-V0jCGicxKm2xF4mlFonS3rm-PymIW67K2D_Vg1qJQVZgAZpWwdjP0vZpQDrgyHT4khOXbWW7eKdi-KN89uQ. Accessed 5 November 2024.