Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are extremely popular, which is both exciting and frightening
I really like the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. I quite liked them when I first reviewed them, but the addition of the Meta AI β which has now officially rolled out outside the US β has easily made them the best wearable AI out there, and one of the best smart glasses out there. buy. And it turns out I’m not alone when it comes to being impressed by them.
This is what Stefano Grassi, CFO of EssilorLuxottica, who works at the company, says Profit third quarter 2024 A call revealed that the smart specs are the best-selling glasses at 60% of Ray-Ban stores in the EMEA region (via Upload VR). EssilorLuxottica is the parent company of Ray-Ban and EMEA stands for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
It is therefore no wonder that Grassi called the smart glasses βa successβ, and that Meta and EssilorLuxottica have expanded their partnership to continue working together on smart specifications.
Now there are a few factors to consider. First, since we don’t know their overall revenue share, Ray-ban Meta Smart Glasses will likely still be a minor player compared to the company’s traditional sunglasses. The Meta-powered specs may be the best-selling model in some Ray-ban stores, but the vast majority of sales will likely still come from the many different shades of standard sunglasses.
Moreover, Ray-Ban glasses are not cheap. If you’re already the kind of person who walks into a store with confidence, ready to spend upwards of $100, even $200, on a pair of sunglasses, and pay that little bit extra for a pair at $299 / Β£299 / AU$449 with speakers and cameras added -on is bordering on an impulse purchase. Just because they are popular among Ray-Ban shoppers doesn’t mean they are very popular.
Nevertheless, even if you have the money, those extra costs aren’t nothing, and it’s interesting β and perhaps a little worrying β to hear that these portable recording devices are clearly not as obnoxious as the technology was even a decade ago. .
Are we ready for a smart glasses revolution?
When Google Glass was launched, it was heralded as a technological revolution. In reality, they didn’t quite stick the landing.
Price was a factor, but I remember there was a lot of talk about how creepy the specs were if you thought about them too hard. Not only for wearers, who had to get used to a camera that (even if it is not always active) could always see what they were looking at, but also for the public.
There were several published stories about owners of the camera and microphone equipped Google Glass be attacked because the technology so stirred others. Ray-Ban’s apparently less niche smart glasses do not appear to have caused a comparable or proportionate increase in crime.
There may be a few reasons for this. I’m sure the more discreet design of the Ray-Bans plays a role, as does the fact that (for better or for worse) we just feel more comfortable with people wearing cameras around them every waking moment and to use. wandering around a busy part of a major city for more than 30 minutes and not appearing in a dozen livestreams, vlogs, or viral TikTok dance videos in the making.
For whatever reason, it seems that smart glasses are currently experiencing not only a technological revolution, but also public perception. We should probably be at least a little concerned about the fact that big tech companies have access to more of our personal data than ever thanks to smart glasses, and how they might use it (like training their AI). But from a purely technology perspective, this renewed consumer interest in smart glasses could push companies to come up with exciting and competitive designs in the coming years.
We’ll have to wait and see what exactly comes out of the burgeoning smart glasses market, but news like today’s is starting to convince me that it might just be a matter of when, not if, we’ll all be wearing a pair one day β as wonderful and slightly scary as that all sounds.