Leaking hints on potential AR Glasses has become something of a trend. Apple is still the favorite with the eager crowd, while Facebook’s plans are also under watchful eye. The latest in the procession is Huawei, whose CEO has explicitly announced an AR device on cable TV. Huawei AR glasses are not far away either, expected to arrive in a year or two tops.
The wake of Google Glass failure as a consumer product left an AR void ready to be filled by an apt enough device. The leading Silicon Valley companies, naturally, are now racing to deliver top product. But it is a balancing game, the glasses, with tech companies developing the technology waiting, watching and waiting for the consumer market to ripen.
Augmented Reality has grown so big now that leading tech companies cannot afford to be left out. Smartphones in particular are the platform to develop and run AR in the current technological climate. Huawei in fact, has recently taken over Apple as the No2 largest smartphone producer in the world. But glasses are the future. The Chinese mobile company is stepping up its game with potential AR device. The company opened up on the possibility, imminence rather, of Huawei AR glasses, on cable TV no less.
U.S. market knows Huawei as low priced smartphone maker. That, and, reportedly, as a potential threat to national security. But the Chinese company is trying to pry into the highs of U.S. market with high-end devices at competitive prices. The future Huawei AR glasses certainly qualifies as such. Richard Yu, Huawei CEO of consumer business, is making a bet on the future: ‘In the beginning you may feel AR… is nothing’, he agrees. ‘But in the future you will see more and more the value of that’. The future Yu is talking about is certainly foreseeable. The new device is expected to air in one or two years’ time.
For now, sticking to their guns, Huawei is releasing more and more AR apps to, reportedly, accustom users to their usage. Huawei Mate 20 Pro already enjoys a decent host of AR apps. New ones will be added in an attempt ‘to commercialize the industry’ and prepare the growing market for ‘a better user experience product’. Little is known on the actual device that will come out by 2020, but it seems that it will be an integrated tool pairing very well with Huawei phones: ‘with this AR, you can have AR glasses working with phone, maybe you can watch more of a large area’, Yu confirms.
Embracing AR, one has to be ready to answer some challenging question the tech itself requires. Huawei AR glasses, or indeed any other AR device of comparable ambition, needs to pass the test that Google Glass failed. Namely, can it be useful in a real, down-to-earth, day-by-day manner? Can it truly enhance reality rather than make it more appealing? Questions, questions. Luckily, Huawei AR glasses will be out in, technologically speaking, no time and we’ll have some answers then.
