# Apple plans camera AirPods alongside upgraded foldable iPhone in 2027 > Source: > Published: 2026-06-16 17:02:42+00:00 **Getting your** [Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...**By Mark Gurman, Bloomberg** Apple Inc.’s upcoming camera-equipped AirPods, a product meant to vault the company into the AI device market, is scheduled to launch in late 2027 as part of a flurry of new releases. The company aims to release the device around the same time as a next-generation foldable phone and a fresh iPhone model that will mark that product’s 20th anniversary, according to people familiar with the matter. The offerings will be part of what Apple intends to be its biggest wave of new products yet, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private. The devices should help provide a tailwind to the company during its first full year under Chief Executive Officer John Ternus, who takes the reins Sept. 1. All three products reached advanced stages of development in recent months. Bloomberg News reported in May that work on the new AirPods had accelerated, with prototypes now featuring near-final hardware and software. The company is also preparing a slew of new chips for future devices, built on next-generation silicon manufacturing processes. Apple is now testing next fall’s devices alongside iOS 28, an iPhone software update code-named Bell that is slated for 2027. Last week, the company introduced iOS 27, which will be available to consumers later this year with a new version of Siri. AirPods for AI The new AirPods are designed to be Apple’s first AI-focused wearable product. The device’s computer-vision cameras won’t be intended to capture photos and video — instead, they’ll act as sensors that feed visual context into Siri. The goal is to let users ask Siri questions about objects and the surrounding environment. Someone looking at a collection of ingredients, for example, could ask what to make for dinner. The AirPods, code-named B798, were originally slated for release in 2026, according to the people. The deadline slipped in part because of Apple’s prolonged struggles with artificial intelligence software. The company also had to develop visual AI models capable of identifying objects in a user’s surroundings. The timing of all the products remains fluid and could change. A spokesperson for Cupertino, California-based Apple declined to comment. At its developer conference last week, Apple announced similar functionality for the Vision Pro headset. But the stakes of getting it right are much higher for the AirPods, a more popular product that Apple believes has huge potential as an AI wearable. The camera AirPods will help solidify Apple’s push into what it calls Visual Intelligence, technology that can analyze images and provide instant context. The company has already made Visual Intelligence a focal point of its new Siri and iOS 27, bringing the function into its Camera app. The new earbuds will closely resemble current AirPods Pro models, apart from the cameras embedded in the stems. There are also external lights to indicate to people around the wearer when data is being sent from the earbuds to the cloud for processing. Apple has also explored using the cameras to provide contextual reminders and improve navigation during turn-by-turn walking directions. The AirPods are part of a broader push into AI devices, with Apple planning to release its first smart glasses as early as the tail end of next year. That product, code-named N50, is designed to rival offerings from Meta Platforms Inc. and will include more advanced cameras that can take photos and video. Work on the AirPods remains further along, though. The company is also considering making an AI-focused pendant with a camera that can be worn on clothes or as a necklace. Apple’s push into foldable phones, meanwhile, will kick off in September with its first model in that market, Bloomberg News has reported. The company will then follow up with the second-generation version, a device code-named V78, a year later. The schedule signals that Apple sees foldables as an important category that warrants annual updates. New iPhones Apple is also ramping up work on an iPhone that celebrates that device’s two-decade history for release at the end of next year. The product will feature a nearly edge-to-edge display, with curved glass that wraps around the sides. The anniversary models, code-named V73 and V74, will succeed the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max coming this year, and debut in similar sizes. Both the anniversary and second-generation foldable models will run on a 2-nanometer A21 chip internally dubbed Naxos. Though Apple will continue to refresh its pro iPhone models in the fall, it won’t debut the standard iPhone 18 until next year. As a result, that model will go at least a year and a half between updates. This year’s iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and first-generation foldable iPhone will use an A20 Pro processor code-named Borneo. The standard iPhone 18 model arriving next year will run on a base A20 chip known internally as Banda. A successor to the regular iPhone 18 is also in development and will run a standard A21 chip known as Nimos. With the A22 Pro processor coming in the high-end 2028 iPhones, Apple is planning to move to 1.4-nanometer production technology. The company will primarily work with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. on that chip, but is also considering using Intel Corp. to handle some production. More stories like this are available on [bloomberg.com](https://www.bloomberg.com) ©2026 Bloomberg L.P.