New York
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a daring declare on the social media large’s earnings name in July. People with out good glasses could sooner or later be at a “significant cognitive disadvantage” in contrast to those that do use the tech, he instructed analysts.
That imaginative and prescient for the firm’s future may come into focus this week throughout the Meta Connect convention, the place the tech large outlines its subsequent steps and broadcasts new merchandise. Reports counsel Meta will announce a new pair of AI-powered good glasses to comply with its comparatively profitable Ray-Ban spectacles, which may analyze a wearer’s surroundings and reply questions about their environment.
The good glasses have been a vibrant spot in Meta’s largely lackluster makes an attempt to bet early on disruptive applied sciences. It missed out on the smartphone in the early 2000s. Then in 2021, the firm tried to reorient its model round the metaverse, which failed to reshape the web in the means Zuckerberg had envisioned.
But Meta’s glasses seem to be catching on with shoppers; Ray-Ban dad or mum EssilorLuxottica said in July that income from its Meta glasses greater than tripled year-over-year. And market analysis signifies Meta is the main good glasses model by far.
Smart glasses aren’t probably to change into as ubiquitous as smartphones anytime quickly. But they may permit Meta to attain shoppers straight, doubtlessly decreasing reliance on smartphones. That may very well be essential as Meta seeks to develop “personal superintelligence” — a obscure time period Zuckerberg has used to describe AI that “knows us deeply, understands our goals, and can help us achieve them.”
The stress is on as a wave of tech giants together with Samsung, Google and Meta’s longtime social media rival Snap put together to launch new good glasses. Amazon is additionally creating new glasses with augmented actuality, a expertise that locations pc graphics over real-world environment, in accordance to The Information.
Meta and Ray-Ban partnered on a pair of glasses in 2021 referred to as the Ray-Ban Stories that have been primarily designed for capturing pictures and movies hands-free. But Meta was removed from the first to discover utilizing glasses for duties like snapping pictures, making calls and listening to music with out reaching on your telephone.
Snap and Amazon, as well as to a wave of smaller tech companies, have all launched good glasses for these functions. Google was an early entrant in 2013 with Google Glass, though that system was unpopular with shoppers due to its excessive worth, retro look, restricted performance and brief battery life.
Tech giants imagine this new wave of good glasses will likely be completely different. The applied sciences required to energy the glasses – like processors, batteries and cameras – are actually simpler to slot in smaller, extra light-weight designs at a a lot cheaper price than Google Glass.
But AI developments have been primarily driving these new good glasses. Virtual assistants that may reply questions primarily based on a person’s environment almost immediately have made good glasses way more sensible. With Meta’s eyewear, for instance, a person can take a look at a pepper and ask whether or not it’s spicy, or learn a signal and ask Meta’s AI assistant to translate it into a completely different language.
Meta is stated to be creating new good glasses that embrace a show for viewing apps and notifications and a wristband for simpler gesture management, in accordance to Bloomberg. Meta will probably announce these spectacles at the Connect conference, which it stated will focus on the “latest innovations in AI glasses,” amongst different issues. Last yr, the firm introduced a prototype for its Orion augmented actuality glasses.
Meta declined to remark on potential plans to announce new glasses at this week’s occasion.
The present Ray-Ban Meta glasses don’t show something on the lenses, which means wearers rely on audio suggestions or Meta’s telephone app. That may put them at a drawback in contrast to upcoming glasses like these from Google, which have a show for exhibiting data together with offering verbal solutions.
“That’s going to be another challenge,” stated Guillaume Chansin, an analyst with market analysis agency Counterpoint Research. “Like if you want to replace a smartphone, can you really do that without having some kind of visual feedback?”
The AI growth has led to a tech business frenzy to capitalize on the expertise, as firms worry being perceived as behind the potential subsequent huge factor.
“Everybody is looking for what’s coming after the smartphone,” stated Chansin.
The success of Apple’s AirPods and different wi-fi earbuds may strengthen the case for good glasses. While the gadgets are inherently completely different, they serve a few of the similar functions, like making calls and speaking with digital assistants with out pulling out your telephone.
“As we look forward, maybe smart glasses are going to evolve into the AirPods of the future,” stated Melissa Otto, head of analysis at funding analysis supplier S&P Global Visible Alpha.
Meta faces an uphill battle. While demand for good glasses appears to be rising quick (ABI Research predicts the market will ship 13 million models in 2026, up from 3.3 million in 2024), they’re nonetheless a area of interest product. Hundreds of thousands and thousands of smartphones are shipped in a single quarter alone, and there’s little indication that good glasses will ever be almost as extensively adopted.
Reality Labs, the division of Meta chargeable for the firm’s AI glasses and Quest digital actuality headsets, noticed a $4.5 billion working loss in the firm’s fiscal second quarter of 2025. By comparability, Meta’s apps generated $583 million in income.
So what’s actually in it for Meta? While good glasses might not be a income driver proper now, they may doubtlessly set the stage for a future by which Meta is much less reliant on {hardware} makers like Apple and Google to distribute its apps.
Meta has beforehand butted heads with Apple over insurance policies associated to the iPhone maker’s App Store, and Zuckerberg has beforehand criticized the iPhone maker’s App Store dominance.
“Apple’s (app store) stands out as the only one where one company can control what apps get on the device,” Zuckerberg stated throughout the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit in 2022.
If glasses change into the main means folks video chat and browse social media feeds, promoting its personal eyewear may give Meta extra management over the expertise.
“I look at Facebook, look at Instagram, look at Reels, Threads through my iPhone,” stated Otto. “I don’t do it through a laptop. I don’t do it through smart glasses. I do it through my iPhone.”