Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was testing out Orion AR glasses at Meta Connect’s annual event held on September 25, 2024 at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, USA. Reuters/Manuel Orbegozo
Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters
Meta Billions of dollars have failed to try to gain virtual reality for consumers. Shifting Metaverse bets to smart glasses, investors are looking to see how the public responds.
The social media company is still set to unveil its most advanced smart glasses at the Connect Annual event on Wednesday. According to CONBC, the glasses, internally codenamed HyperNova, feature a small display that can be controlled via hand gestures via wristbands that utilize neurological technology.
The device’s promotional video reportedly appeared on Meta’s YouTube page on Monday, but was later deleted.
The device expected to cost $800 is based on Meta’s partnership essilorluxotticaIn 2023, they produced Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses equipped with AI and Oakley Meta HSTN Smart Glasses announced in June. These glasses include cameras, speakers and microphones, so users can take photos, shoot videos and play music with Meta AI’s voice assistant.
Wall Street is concerned about spending by Reality Labs, the company’s division responsible for developing consumer hardware products such as Ray-Ban Metagrass and Quest VR headsets. Meta revealed in July that its reality lab division recorded an operating loss of $4.53 billion in the second quarter, and a loss of about $70 billion since the second half of 2020.
Investors understand that Meta’s reality lab spending is not significantly rewarded for years, but they also understand that they want to see the progress that indicates “seeing the potential benefits of the investment.” For now, smart glasses seem like a healthier investment than a VR headset. This is still a niche and could take years for the flowers to bloom, he said.
“I definitely have changed the company’s focus from VR headsets to glasses,” Post said. “At this point, glasses are much more impactful and become a more mass market.”
Meta declined to comment.
At HyperNova, Meta is selling smart glasses with displays to consumers for the first time. The display is expected to show small and limited to users, but the release of HyperNova represents the middle ground between the experimental Orion augmented reality glasses that Meta unveiled during last year’s Connect event.
Meta’s Orion AR glasses will appear on September 26, 2024 during viewing in Menlo Park, California, USA.
Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters
Orion AR glasses work in parallel with the wireless computing “Pack”, allowing you to project 3D visuals into the physical world into the 3D visuals and interact with them using wristbands. But while Orion AR glasses can produce dazzling visuals, they are still experimental and expensive, according to Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.
“They’re still prototypes because delivering things like Orion on a large scale takes time,” Sag says. “I think a single display is a movement in the right direction and will help you build an ecosystem of apps.”
According to CCS Insight analyst and director Leo Gebbie, Connect Connect offers the opportunity to build the unexpected success of Ray-Ban Metagrass. In July, Essilorluxottica said in its latest revenue report that Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses would sell more than three times the sales year-on-year.
“I really feel like an opportunity to break through the new product category,” Gebbie says.
Analysts also focus on Meta’s recent artificial intelligence-related strategic shift. This monitors how it can support its hardware efforts when the company invested $14.3 billion in scale AI in June. Glasses could be the right hardware form factor for AI capabilities, Post said.
“If they get the integration with the device right, it could really be a better portal for AI than a phone,” he said.
But while Meta has the money and technical talent to build smart glasses, it needs to develop an ecosystem of developers who build engaging apps and software that will attract consumers, SAG said.
The risk of meta is that consumers will ultimately reject Hyper Nova and potentially reject the wider market for smart glasses with displays, Gebbie said. For $800, glasses are expected to cost more than twice as much as Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, starting at $299. Already, Meta has low internal expectations for HyperNova glasses sales, CNBC reported in August, but the company hopes to at least announce the Buzz.
Meta’s ambition is that smart glasses will become the next major personal computing platform. For now, apple and Google Maintains iOS and Android mobile operating systems, respectively.
Apple declined to comment. Google did not respond to requests for comment.
It is unclear whether Meta’s glasses will take over smartphone consumer status, but there is a good threat that both Apple and Google are tackling their own competitive products. Apple is reportedly working on its own eyeglass project, and Google announced a $150 million partnership in May Warby Parka Build smart glasses
“The fact that everyone is developing glasses right now suggests that Meta’s reality lab concept is well thought out and at this point it’s in front of the glasses,” Post said. “The problem with the competition is that they can leverage mobile operating systems to make people buy glasses.”
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