Apple delaying AR glasses until 2022 would be bad for XR, but no shock

Years ago, an Apple loyalist claimed the company was being unfairly criticized for delaying products that had been widely reported to be on the cusp of release, arguing that Apple couldn’t have pushed back products it hadn’t formally announced. The faulty premise was that an Apple product only exists after it debuts in a keynote or press release, so anything before that is merely rumor and speculation.

Judged by that standard, Apple isn’t pushing back augmented reality hardware since it hasn’t formally revealed it. So if you believe The Information’s report today that Apple is currently planning 2022-2023 releases for its first AR devices, that wouldn’t be a two or three year delay from the 2020 timetable first reported by Bloomberg in 2017 — it’s merely a revision of Apple’s internal timetables, which were never intended to become public.