Meta Chief Product Officer Chris Cox said on Thursday that smart glasses are the long run of computing devices.
“We refer to them, we’ll see with them, we’ll use gestures the identical way we interact with one another to interact with our computers,” Cox told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin. “The interfaces will get more natural, and so we actually imagine that the subsequent really essential wearable technology goes to be a pair of glasses.”
The $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, which were revealed on Wednesday, have a small in-lens display that’s controlled with hand movements using a neural wristband.
Users will have the opportunity to record videos, in addition to send messages via voice or physically using handwriting gestures on their knee, Cox said.
“We have began with just the fundamentals, which is messaging, which we all know is the thing people need to do in a more fluid way,” Cox said.
Unlike Meta’s previous audio-only Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, the Displays allow people to see messages and watch videos.
During a demo, CEO Mark Zuckerberg unsuccessfully attempted to reply a video call from Meta tech chief Andrew Bosworth, because the button to just accept the decision failed to seem on the display.
Meta saw promising results with its second-generation Meta Ray-Ban glasses collaboration with EssilorLuxottica released in 2023. CEO Francesco Milleri said in February that two million units had been sold since its debut.
EssilorLuxottica revealed in its second-quarter earnings report that revenue from Ray-Ban Meta glasses greater than tripled in the course of the first half in comparison with the yr before.
The corporate said the success of the smart glasses and the Oakley Meta Performance AI glasses, which launched in June, helped it hit overall sales during Q2 of seven.2 billion euro, or $8.5 billion.
While it’s still unclear whether Meta’s bet on smart glasses pays off, the corporate is facing growing competition.
Google announced a $150 million partnership with Warby Parker to develop AI glasses in May, while Snap revealed in June plans to release its sixth generation of augmented reality glasses in 2026. Apple can also be reportedly seeking to release its own smart glasses by the top of next yr.
