At Meta’s software developers conference in Menlo Park, Calif., this week, Mark Zuckerberg strutted onto the stage to show off a new gadget: a pair of glasses with cameras and a tiny screen projected into the corner of the frame.
The presentation was similar in ambition to the product unveilings of Macs, iPhones, and iPads when Steve Jobs was at the helm of Apple. Mr. Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, laid out his vision for how computerized glasses would become the future of personal computing.
The new glasses, the $800 Meta Ray-Ban Display, which runs apps similar to a smartphone, were intended to demonstrate that Meta was light-years ahead of the competition. But it failed its first public demonstration. And then another.
Unlike the “big tent” moments that Mr. Jobs oversaw for years as the ringmaster of Apple’s product demonstrations, Mr. Zuckerberg drew more snickers than applause. He became a meme on social media, and tech news sites mocked his glitch-filled performance.
The product’s snafus, including a video call failing onstage, effectively dismantled an image that Meta’s marketing team had carefully crafted for Mr. Zuckerberg over the last few years.
In press interviews featuring Meta’s top brass and its glasses, along with online videos posted by influencers showcasing the product, it appears that Meta was on the cusp of something big enough to dethrone industry titans like Apple and Samsung, becoming the next leader in computing hardware.
But realistically, it’s nowhere close. The company’s smart glasses remain a niche. As of February, Meta had sold approximately two million of its $300 Ray-Ban Meta camera glasses since their 2023 debut, and it hopes to sell 10 million annually by the end of 2026, which is a relatively small number for a company of this size.
In the last decade, Meta has spent over $100 billion on its virtual and augmented reality division, which includes its smart glasses, and it remains unprofitable. Last quarter, the division reported a $4.5 billion loss, nearly the same as the loss reported a year ago.
For perspective, Apple sells hundreds of millions of iPhones and tens of millions of smart watches each year. (In fairness, Apple has shipped far fewer Vision Pro headsets — a few hundred thousand to date, according to estimates — compared with Meta, which has sold tens of millions of its Quest headsets.)
If smart glasses do eventually become mainstream, the product might come from a brand with a better reputation among consumers, such as Google, which unveiled a prototype of its smart glasses powered by its AI chatbot, Gemini, this year, or Apple, which is reportedly developing similar hardware.
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Analysts predict that the Meta Ray-Ban Display will be a modest seller for the foreseeable future due to its high price and the uncertainty surrounding whether people will want a screen on their face while out and about. (Remember Google Glass?)
Meta appears, however, to be making progress with fixing some of the most glaring issues with computers you wear on your face. Unlike Google Glass and other headsets that looked bulky and off-putting, the Meta Ray-Ban Display felt comfortable and resembled normal eyewear. Battery life, estimated at six hours, may be sufficient to help get someone through a busy day.
Meta’s executive overseeing augmented reality, Alex Himel, said in an interview that the company designed the product to have greater longevity by making good use of every inch in the glasses for components. It also programmed the screen to turn off soon after people stopped interacting with it, so that it doesn’t drain power.
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But our 30-minute test with the Meta Ray-Ban Display, which arrives in stores on Sept. 30, was as spotty as Mr. Zuckerberg’s demonstration. A wristband included with the glasses, which detects hand gestures for controlling apps on the screen, occasionally failed to register finger swipes. Meta spokespeople blamed its issues on crowded Wi-Fi networks.
Even if the glasses turn out to be solid when they arrive in stores, Meta has yet to fix a deeper problem with its brand: a longstanding distrust between the company and its customers over how it has mishandled people’s data.
Glasses with cameras, which have implications for surveillance and privacy, could exacerbate Meta’s challenges because the products subtly record what wearers see and hear.
They emit a tiny light to indicate when a recording is in progress, which can be challenging to notice. As the glasses become mainstream, privacy concerns will only grow, said Carolina Milanesi, a consumer technology analyst for Creative Strategies, a research firm.
