Signal: Meta Vision 📧
A Meta-heavy topside as I work through all the various pieces from their keynote and AI glasses unveil yesterday. On a, yes, meta level, I have some thoughts about the way they're framing all of this (puns for shame).
M.G. Siegler
Take One...
🤓 Meta Launches $799 Glasses – There's quite a bit of information that wasn't in the keynote packed in here about the 'Meta Ray-Ban Display' (an almost comically generic name, but I guess makes it clear which version you're buying?) – including that Meta is now referring to the category as "AI Glasses". Also of note, they'll be sold at retail to start (not online), clearly to get people hands-on time with them. And that makes the EssilorLuxottica partnership even more key with this version as they'll be sold at places like Lenscrafters (as well as Best Buys and some Verizon stores). Meta is clearly trying to temper expectations here, noting they expect sales of "over 100,000" in the first year, not millions, and it doesn't sound like Meta is even making that many. And that may be in part because they're pretty clearly being sold at a loss. I do appreciate Andrew Bosworth not shying away from mentioning the prism-wearing elephant in the room, in the form of Google Glass. He thinks some of the ideas there were right, but the timing was off. One more thing: he confirmed they've been toying around with a smartwatch – seems like an obvious extension of the Neural Band, no? [Bloomberg 🔒]
I Quote...
"Is there a world where, in five or seven years, the vast majority of those glasses are AI glasses in some capacity? I think that it's kind of like when the iPhone came out and everyone had flip phones. It's just a matter of time before they all become smartphones."
– Mark Zuckerberg, talking to Alex Heath (quite the way to launch a new newsletter!), about the Meta Ray-Ban Display. I get the sentiment but there's one key difference: those billions of people need to wear glasses. To see. I'm one of them. They're a medical device. For the other several billion that don't, it will require an entirely new frame of mind around utility, convenience, and fashion.
Honestly, I hope they're thinking about it smarter than that statement.
Heath pulls a bunch of other interesting tidbits out of Zuckerberg and CTO Andrew Bosworth, including some details about how you type using the Neural Band, which Zuck showed off on stage but didn't fully explain – it sounds similar to the experience I had way back when with the device that was the precursor to this band. It's pretty clear this new wearable is a winner – and Zuck is debating making it a platform on its own.
Below, members of The Inner Ring will find thoughts on:
• NVIDIA's Investment in Intel
• Jimmy Kimmel No Longer Live
• A Face-On Report for Meta's New AI Glasses
• and more...