Meta Looks to Overcome the 'Glasshole' Stigma
Last week, Apple chose a famous Steve Jobs quote to open their iPhone event: "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." That's true. But only because the inverse is also true: Design is not just how it works. Design is what it looks like and feels like. And that's what Meta is clearly going to have to focus on at their Meta Connect conference this week.
I say "clearly" because it clearly looks like at least one of their big announcements has leaked ahead of time. As spotted by David Heaney of UploadVR, it appears that Meta's new 'HUD' smart glasses are ready to roll. It's a leak so bad that you almost have to wonder if it was one of those intentional "whoops" quick YouTube upload-then-delist moments to whet the appetite of the unveiling tomorrow. Regardless, the 'Meta Ray-Ban Display' glasses are clearly imminent.
Of course, much about these "Hypernova" glasses, which feature a small display in one lens, has already leaked out via reports over this year. That includes the inclusion of an "sEMG wristband" that pairs with them to help control the screen, as I've written about before. Otherwise, one quasi-surprise here may be the branding:
But what is somewhat of a surprise is that it will be Ray-Ban branded. Last year, The Information reported that the glasses would be released by Meta without EssilorLuxottica, because the Ray-Ban and Oakley owner "balked" at the increased thickness of the glasses arm needed to deliver the display.
One way to get your partner to "un-balk" may be to make a massive investment in their company. Say, $3.5B? And if these are indeed branded as 'Ray-Ban' that will obviously be a huge lift for Meta both because of the previous success with their smart glasses collaboration but also because of the retail footprint EssilorLuxottica brings to the table. While a pair of sunglasses with a camera system may be fairly straightforward, the new screen element is probably something you're going to want to see to believe in – especially if the "glasshole" stigma still lingers in your head from Google's ill-fated early attempt in the space.
The partnership also gives Meta a leg-up in an aspect just as important as the technology here: design. I don't think most people would trust Meta to design something you wear out and about any more than they'd trust Google.1 But they'd certainly trust Ray-Ban – and again, the previous partnership has already proven this to be the case. While Snap may have created the first such wearable that wasn't a complete embarrassment to wear, Meta perfected the form-factor with Ray-Ban – and most importantly, scaled it.
Still, the screen will bring other challenges. Perhaps most notably, battery life. What will that look like? And part of that is clearly related to the above concern EssilorLuxottica had about "chonkiness". From this leak, they don't look too big/bad, but we'll have to see some footage in non-staged lighting. Also, the weight. Word has been 70 grams versus 50 for the "regular" Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which seems reasonable. But feel will be important, obviously.
Meanwhile, how they look internally, as in, to a person wearing them, will obviously be critical too. Some mild concerns from a CNBC report last month:
Although Hypernova will feature a display, those visual features are expected to be limited, people familiar with the matter said. They said the color display will offer about a 20 degree field of view — meaning it will appear in a small window in a fixed position — and will be used primarily to relay simple bits of information, such as incoming text messages.
If Meta keeps it simple – really simple – this might be fine. But I'm a bit worried by what we're seeing in the leaked video...
Beyond that, just the elephant in the room.
As you may have heard, Meta has been having a hell of a time with their AI work. And that will clearly be a key, um, focal point here. Will some version of Llama be ready to roll to power Meta AI in these glasses? Or will they bite the bullet and partner with someone else – perhaps even someone big? – to ensure a great AI experience (which has long been an issue) while they work to re-build their own internal models? Also, such a device may not only be important for AI output, but input too, as I wrote about in June:
Back to consumers, Meta is clearly happy to keep pulling on the Ray-Ban string to see where it leads. Next up: some (small) display AR to augment the capture (and audio) AR. And clearly Apple has seen enough to think they need to go down this path too. And Google once again! Granted they've been burned enough down this path in the past to want to partner this time, but still, everyone is lining up for another go at making such wearables happen. And that's presumably because it's not just about AR here, but rather AI. And the fact that such glasses are not just interesting as outputs for the technology, but also inputs, with all the sensors able to capture information in the real world to feed back into the models.
Even if these 'Hypernova' glasses don't end up being huge sellers – the sub-$1,000 price point, at a rumored $800, is key, but still expensive unless they're great – this launch and continuing partnership will jack up the pressure on Meta's rivals here. Snap first and foremost, of course. But Google, and Amazon, and Samsung, and yes, Apple as well. Meta runs a risk in being first here – especially because of that aforementioned true first-mover in Google Glass, which poisoned this particular well for a decade. But they've given people confidence with the Ray-Ban Metas and everyone knows that Mark Zuckerberg would love nothing more than to shove this success in the face of Tim Cook.
We'll see!
One more thing: a point in favor of this not being an intentional buzz-building leak might be the fact that Meta also leaked another product: the 'Oakley Meta Sphaera'. These are the new (also rumored) Oakley smart glasses collaboration that puts the camera system in the center. Prada soon?
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
1 Yes, Apple may be the only tech company anyone would truly trust here. Then again, they created this. Including the creepy eye screen thing that they really thought would help people wear it around. Yikes. ↩