US based tech giant Apple is gearing up for launch of its highly awaited smart glasses by the end of 2027, with the brand hoping that its new product category can follow the similar playbook that it used for the Apple Watch years ago.

The company initially planned the launch of smart glasses, codenamed N50, at the end of 2026, but there have been delays to the project and the new reportindicatesthat they could ship by early 2027.

Apple to Repeat Old Strategy for New Product Category

As per reports, the company is looking for a similar opportunity in the eyewear segment to the one it once saw in the watch category when it launched the first Apple Watch in 2015. In2015,smartwatchwas still a niche category dominated by brands such as Samsung, Motorola, LG, and Pebble.

During the launch ofthe firstAppleWatch,the company was not just aimingto capture the smartwatch market. It also wantedto take on the entire wristwatch industry by convincing customers to replace their traditional watches with a new accessorythat paired with their iPhone, tracked their health metrics, and still told the time like anordinarywatch.

The Apple Watch strategy worked so well for the company and Apple turned out to become the world's largest watchmaker in terms of unit volumewhereasthe revenues for many traditional watch manufacturers such as Swatch and Fossil dropped significantly between 2014 and 2025.

Apple is now planning to apply a similar strategy as it looks to take on the broader eyewear market which is not just limited to smart glasssegmentswhichiscurrently ruled by Meta.

Smart Glasses To Become As Big As iPhones

Bloomberg's Gurman notes that the eyewear marketrepresentsan even larger opportunity for the company, with the global eyewear industry estimated to be around$200 billionannually.As per the World HealthOrganisationaround 2.2 billion people worldwide have some form of vision impairment while millions of pairs of glasses are sold every year.

ThisindicatesthatApple'snew category could potentially become as large asthe smartphonebusiness, with billions ofpotentialscustomers opportunities if everything went as per the company's plan.

According to internal reports, the company believes that it has several key advantages that could help it succeed in the eyewear category. Apple could use itsstrong brand value, industrial designexpertise, trust, and tight integration with the iPhone to persuade consumersto shopfor regularprescription glasses to choose Apple-branded eyewear instead.