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Meta plans to add displays to its Ray-Ban smart glasses as soon as next year, as the US tech giant accelerates plans to develop a lightweight headset that can usurp smartphones as consumers’ primary computing device.
The $1.5 trillion social media group plans to add screens to the inside of the $300 sunglasses it makes and sells in partnership with eyewear group EssilorLuxottica, according to people familiar with the plans.
Officials say the latest Ray-Ban could be released as early as the second half of 2025. This small display could be used to show notifications and responses from Meta’s virtual assistant.
The move comes as rivals including Apple, Google and Snap race to develop similar products of their own, with Meta set to develop wearable devices and the next computing platform that CEO Mark Zuckerberg hopes will This was carried out in the midst of further progress.
In September, Meta unveiled Orion, a prototype augmented reality glasses. The company accelerated Orion’s development after enthusiastic response from early testers, people familiar with the matter said.
The people said Meta has brought forward plans to turn the device into a consumer product, but a release is likely still years away.
Orion’s compact design, lightweight frame, and innovative display that overlays 3D content onto the real world is a breakthrough after years of failed AR headsets, including the Google-backed Magic Leap and Microsoft’s Hololens. It is welcomed as a great product.
Mehta declined to comment on its smart glasses strategy. But in mid-December, Andrew Bosworth, the company’s chief technology officer, said 2025 would be “the most important year in history” for Reality Labs, the division that makes Glasses and Quest virtual reality headsets. )”.
Reality Labs has been losing money since it was founded in 2020 as part of Zuckerberg’s long-term bet on the Metaverse. The division lost $13 billion in the first three quarters of 2024, with revenue of only about $1 billion.
Ray-Ban Meta glasses have become an unexpected hit among consumers since the latest version was launched in September 2023. The current model includes discreet in-ear speakers, a camera, and a microphone for listening to music, taking photos, and chatting with Meta’s artificial intelligence. assistant.
The first version of the display is likely to show simple text and images, but this is meant to blend the device with Zuckerberg’s long-term vision for AR glasses that can replace the virtual world with the real world. This will be an important step.
Michael Miller, head of augmented reality hardware at Niantic, the developer of Pokémon Go and other AR games, said of Ray-Ban, “The meta is that these lightweight glasses are interesting and useful even without a display. We have proven that.”
Meta is still in the early stages of experimenting with what an AR headset could be. Its Orion glasses are controlled by a wristband and receive signals from the body, including the brain, with a neural interface. Mehta is also considering using a ring or ball with a trackpad to control the headset, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
Experts say the platform faces major hurdles in developing fashionable glasses with adequate hardware performance and battery life at a desirable price point. There are also serious challenges in the supply chain.
One of Orion’s biggest innovations is its novel use of silicon carbide lenses. This material had not previously been widely used in optics, and it helped Meta create much larger and brighter images for Orion users than would be possible using regular glass.
However, silicon carbide lenses are expensive and cannot be manufactured on a large scale, creating a major barrier to making Orion an affordable mass-market product without sacrificing one of its advantages.
“If the goal now is to accelerate the commercialization of Orion, one way would be to narrow the field of view…and use a more universal glass material,” Miller said. Ta.
Experts believe that products like Ray-Ban Meta glasses and Apple’s Vision Pro will appeal to consumers smartly, given the social acceptance challenges that ultimately hampered the launch of Google’s Glass eyewear nearly a decade ago. He said it’s helping people get used to the idea of headsets.
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The first Ray-Ban Meta glasses were released in 2021, but sales were limited. However, according to EssilorLuxottica CEO Francesco Mirelli, the latest generation, launched in October 2023, outsold the previous generation in just a few months over two years. In 2024, shipments of eyewear wearables increased by 73% across the market.
Mr. Meta’s push comes even as Mr. Zuckerberg has shifted focus from his plans to build an online world filled with 3D avatars known as the Metaverse. Instead, he announced Meta’s intention to become a leader in AI by pouring billions of dollars into the space, including developing its own open source large-scale language models.
“What’s starting to get interesting about Ray-Ban and Orion is how Meta’s AI strategy is converging with mixed reality,” said Luke Alvarez, founding general partner at Hiro Capital, which invests in gaming and Metaverse technology. “That’s true,” he says. “Perhaps[Zuckerberg]may end up owning a large portion of the next generation operating system. That’s clearly his goal.”
