{"id":235145,"date":"2025-09-18T01:01:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T01:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/235145\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T01:01:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T01:01:21","slug":"meta-steps-up-its-efforts-to-make-smart-glasses-the-next-major-computing-platform-at-connect-event-technology-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/235145\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta steps up its efforts to make smart glasses the next major computing platform at Connect event | Technology News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meta showcased a slew of smart glasses aimed at different consumers on Wednesday, betting on new wearable devices amid an industry-wide push to develop distinct types of AI-powered consumer electronics.<\/p>\n

The Menlo Park, California\u2013headquartered company used its Connect conference to announce three new smart glasses, including Meta\u2019s first consumer-ready glasses with a display. These new devices represent a deeper push by Meta into the niche but rapidly emerging segment of AI-powered wearable gadgets, opening the door to the next major computing platform shift after smartphones.<\/p>\n

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The Ray-Ban Meta Display, priced at $799 and set to launch on September 30 in the US, features a small display on the right lens that projects helpful contextual information, including translations, navigation paths, and more. The glasses work in tandem with an sEMG wristband, which utilises neural technology and can be controlled via hand gestures.<\/p>\n

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\"Meta Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shows off the new smart glasses\u00a0 during the company\u2019s Connect 2025 conference on September 17 in Menlo Park, California. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia\/Indian Express)<\/p>\n

Internally codenamed Hypernova, the glasses include cameras, speakers, and microphones, allowing users to command the Meta AI voice assistant to perform a variety of tasks, such as taking photos, recording videos, or playing music. Thanks to the built-in display, users receive glanceable information ranging from smartphone notifications to turn-by-turn directions, live translations, real-time recipes, and more. The app launcher can display up to six icons on the screen.<\/p>\n

Meta is also launching a new pair of wraparound Meta Oakley Vanguard glasses. The $499 smart glasses feature a centrally positioned camera on the frame, offering a first-person perspective when capturing content such as slow motion, hyperlapse, and videos with adjustable stabilization. The wraparound, shield-style design is an homage to classic Oakley aesthetics, and the Vanguard glasses are specifically targeted at cyclists, skiers, and runners. The glasses also offer deep integration with Garmin smartwatches.<\/p>\n

\"Meta The Oakley-branded glasses will feature a camera on the nose bridge. (IImage credit: Anuj Bhatia\/Indian Express<\/a>)<\/p>\n

An update to Meta\u2019s second-generation Ray-Ban glasses was also unveiled, featuring improved battery life and 3K Ultra HD video capture. They are priced at $379.<\/p>\n

Connect is a two-day conference for developers focused on virtual reality, augmented reality, and the metaverse<\/a>. It was originally called Oculus Connect and was rebranded to Connect after Facebook<\/a> changed its parent company\u2019s name to Meta in 2021.<\/p>\n

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The Connect conference also saw Meta focusing on its metaverse ambitions, which have existed within the company since 2014, when Facebook acquired virtual reality headset developer Oculus and launched Reality Labs. At the two-day event, Meta announced Horizon Engine, a foundational infrastructure built from scratch to deliver better graphics and faster performance. Developers and creators will be able to use it to easily generate nearly infinite connected spaces with realistic physics and interactions.<\/p>\n

Meta also unveiled Horizon Studio, a new editor and hub for creator tools. It includes the generative AI capabilities introduced over the past year, allowing creators to generate meshes, textures, TypeScript, audio, skyboxes, and more using simple text prompts.<\/p>\n

Meta has spent billions of dollars on virtual reality technology, which has struggled to gain widespread adoption among consumers. Over the years, the company has shifted its focus to smart glasses as the next computing platform, believing that the glasses form factor could appeal to the mass market, much like smartphones did in their early days.
Its Reality Labs division, which oversees the Quest line of virtual reality headsets and the Ray-Ban and Oakley Meta smart glasses (jointly developed with French-Italian eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica), continues to bleed money. In fact, Reality Labs has logged nearly $70 billion in cumulative losses since late 2020.<\/p>\n

Although the Quest VR headsets haven\u2019t become the hit Meta was hoping for, the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are showing signs of success. Meta is one of the few major tech companies to have achieved some level of success in the smart glasses market, selling about 2 million units of its popular Ray-Ban AI glasses since 2023. Competitors like Google<\/a> have failed to crack the market in the past, while Silicon Valley heavyweights, including Apple<\/a>, have yet to launch a pair of smart glasses and continue to rely heavily on the iPhone.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMeta can maintain its lead if it keeps broadening the appeal of the glasses with better app integrations, opens up its APIs, and courts third-party developers,\u201d said Anshel Sag, a principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. \u201cI also think it needs to appeal to more types of users by leveraging other brands Luxottica has rights to, like Prada. Fashion matters a lot when it comes to glasses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Developing hardware for AR, VR, and other immersive technologies is not only expensive but also requires a strong belief in the long-term potential of bringing these products to market. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has backed the vision behind smart glasses, and he believes that AI-powered glasses will become \u201cthe main way we integrate superintelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, Zuckerberg posted a note detailing his views on \u201cpersonal superintelligence\u201d that he believes will \u201chelp humanity accelerate our pace of progress.\u201d While he said that developing superintelligence is now \u201cin sight,\u201d he did not detail how this will be achieved or exactly what \u201csuperintelligence\u201d means.<\/p>\n

\"meta Meta is still commited to the Quest headsets and the Metaverse. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia\/Indian Express)<\/p>\n

Investors and analysts are closely watching Meta\u2019s move into the smart glasses segment, and, more importantly, how the company\u2019s investments in artificial intelligence can support its hardware ambitions. Many believe that the AI use cases tech companies have been showcasing for years can be best experienced through smart glasses.<\/p>\n

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Looking ahead, analysts say that while Meta may have a strong partner in EssilorLuxottica, the company also needs an ecosystem of developers to build compelling apps and software for its smart glasses.<\/p>\n

Meta\u2019s first consumer-ready smart glasses with a built-in display demonstrate both ambition and the company\u2019s confidence in the smart glasses segment. However, at $800, significantly higher than the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which start at $299, they are unlikely to set the market on fire. This suggests Meta may have modest internal expectations for sales.<\/p>\n

Smartphones aren\u2019t going anywhere just yet, but there are growing signs of how quickly the smart glasses space is evolving. As more players enter the market, it could look very different within the next two years. Meta could benefit from this shift and continue to lead the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big part of Apple\u2019s success was the app ecosystem and catering to developers and making it easy to build apps for. Meta needs to do the same here otherwise Google or Apple will do it for them,\u201d Sag said.<\/p>\n

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The writer is in Menlo Park, California attending Meta\u2019s Connect conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meta showcased a slew of smart glasses aimed at different consumers on Wednesday, betting on new wearable devices…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":235146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[126270,745,126268,126266,126269,126267,126271,86037,38650,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-235145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-computing","8":"tag-ai-smart-glasses","9":"tag-computing","10":"tag-meta-ai-glasses","11":"tag-meta-connect-2025","12":"tag-meta-ray-ban-ai-glasses","13":"tag-meta-ray-ban-glasses","14":"tag-meta-smart-glasses","15":"tag-ray-ban-glasses","16":"tag-smart-glasses","17":"tag-technology","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115222602905982642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}