Tim Cook admits Apple AR glasses won't happen anytime soon

Anxious for Apple to show Google how it's done with augmented reality glasses?

We've got bad news for you: It's not happening soon.

In an interview with Vogueon Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed Apple currently doesn't see a way to do AR glasses right.

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"The technology itself doesn't exist to do that in a quality way,” Cook said after giving his standard line about not commenting on rumors.

“We don't give a rats about being first, we want to be best in creating people's experiences," he said. "Something that you would see out in the market any time soon would not be something that any of us would be satisfied with."

The comment is interisting as it comes after years of speculation that Apple is working on AR glasses, and Cook's numerous comments about the company being bullish on AR.

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This is not the first time Cook implied that VR tech needs work, however. "(AR is) gonna take a little while, because there’s some really hard technology challenges there," he said in Oct. 2016.

An Apple patent describing an augmented reality headset. Credit: USPTO

But back then, Cook sounded a lot more interested in AR, claiming that it's "going to become really big," to the extent that we'll wonder "how we lived without it."

There's none of that in this latest interview, and this is the first time Cook quite definitively has said Apple will not be launching AR glasses in the near future.

Cook's comments are notable for another reason: Apple is notoriously secretive about future products, even those the company isn'tworking on. It's odd to hear Cook essentially postpone a product that hasn't been announced yet.

There's indication that Apple put considerable effort into AR glasses but gave up -- or sidelined the project -- in the end.

In June, a tipster told Mashablethat Apple's augmented reality glasses project, codenamed project Iris/Mirrorshades, was likely dead. There's "not a great chance" that Apple would launch AR glasses, the person said, but added that the company was still working on new prototypes. "New samples for Iris had their budget approved," the tipster said, adding that "investment plays" suggest Apple does plan on delivering the product sometime down the line.

Investments don't always pan out, of course. Even if the Apple AR glasses never happen, the company is definitely putting emphasis on augmented reality on the iPhone and iPad. One of the most important features of iOS 11 is ARKit, Apple's augmented reality platform, and Apple demoed AR experiences in several of its recent events, including the iPhone X launch event.

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