iPhone 18 news: Apple will double down on iPhones – who wants to take photos with their glasses?

To be honest, as a long time Apple customer, I've been starting to get a bit disappointed in Apple. I love tech, so much so I've got some Google Glass Explorer Edition rotting in a box in the loft, and it's disappointed me that – as Meta announce the Ray-Ban camera glasses with display, and Google is waiting in the wings – Apple has seemingly done nothing with all it has learned from the Vision Pro.

In fact, it has been reported by Bloomberg (paywall) and long-time Apple predictor Mark Gurman – a source who has got a fair few things right about Apple in the past – that the company is pushing harder into its iPhone line, at the expense (perhaps) of these new technologies. And perhaps – thinking from a photographic perspective – Apple has a point.

I have bought a new iPhone every year and lamented the lack of innovation of late – though I'll admit that iPhone 17 cheered me up more than the 16. The snazzy orange color was not what did it for me. To be honest the external re-design left me feeling a little hurt, like Tim Cook had lied to me about Titanium. He'd only just convinced me it was a brilliant idea and, all of a sudden, it's back to aluminum. (Leaving aside the seeming dishonesty, this is a metal which is all the more frustrating for someone writing for both the USA and the UK!)

No, my favorite generational improvement with the iPhone 17 was the arrival of a 48-megapixel sensor in the tele lens, meaning it produced good-looking photos across the creative range that I chose to use. I don't like the effect of 'digital zoom' and now it is less of a worry.

That's because my iPhone is my 'compact camera', and it has been for a long time. My other camera is a Sony A7 iii – and an assortment of Action cameras, 360 cameras and drones – flying cameras – which means most of my day-to-day life will get caught with my phone. And I think that the level of control involved is just right.

Sure, the upcoming generation of glasses with cameras will have ever more AI and, crucially, a display. The $800 Meta Ray-Ban Display's screen (visible only to the wearer of the slightly thick sunglasses) could, my colleague noted, serve as a possible viewfinder. But will this tech be ready to take most of the photos we want soon?

Honestly, I think not. I remember this from my Google Glass, so I'm aware that the quality will have moved on a little – I have not personally tried the Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses – but, conceptually, you need to capture an image or video by pointing your head in that direction.

That's fine for a bit of clumsy sharing of circumstances and funny things, but I think the average person wants a little bit more control over the pictures they share. Framing the picture – composition – is a lot easier with something you can hold in your hand and see a screen.

Next many people don't like to share an image until they've tweaked it and that's definitely a lot easier on a 'real' screen – glasses displays are transparent, even if the tech was as quick and as powerful as your phone. Not to mention the fact that there just isn't the range of apps, and won't be for a long while. Living in the metaverse sounds very limiting to me.

That's not to say that I don't still want them. I mean it's high tech and futuristic and different.

There are definitely a lot of scenarios in which it seems an awesome tech that Apple just doesn't have an answer for. And I still think it should.

But if I were Apple, and I would definitely (especially to my friends at an investor-friendly publication like Bloomberg) be wanting to talk more about the iPhone because, if we're honest, the vast majority of people are still going to feel more comfortable with phones for most things.

And that is going to include photography and videography. Apple is absorbing the high end there even if some of the lower end is drifting off to smart glasses.

So the news – or at least strong rumors – says that Apple is putting even more into phones makes a lot of sense. And that we'll see the folding phone (the iPhone Air was really just a "technology exercise" to prepare the supply chain, suggests Gruman), and up to five or six new models a year – possibly spaced out so the company doesn't have to rely on one big event.

Check out our guide to the best camera glasses you can buy right now