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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.
It’s higher to be fashionably late than horribly early. Simply ask the tech bros. Google and Snap each scrapped early efforts on sensible glasses greater than a decade in the past, the latter subsequently writing off $40mn of extra stock within the course of. Now Meta, marrying synthetic intelligence with EssilorLuxottica’s timelessly cool Ray-Ban glasses, is seeing higher outcomes.
Creating new {hardware} has at all times been powerful, requiring glossy appears and utility at an reasonably priced value. Flops abound: recall laser discs, 3D TVs and the shortlived Juicero, a $400 related little bit of equipment for squeezing pre-packed fruit. Like software program and trend, the community impact nonetheless holds: reputation begets reputation.
That elusive high quality is now inside tantalising attain for sensible glasses. Globally, gross sales within the first half of 2025 greater than doubled in contrast with the identical interval final yr, based on consultancy Counterpoint, with Meta’s Ray-Bans dominating shipments. Final yr’s complete gross sales of three.3mn models will almost quadruple in 2026, reckons ABI Analysis, making a $7.8bn market.
Rather a lot has modified because the creation of Google Glass and Snap’s video-recording sunnies. First, wearers can now look trendy fairly than plain geeky. Synthetic intelligence provides extra perform with out weight; sensible Ray-Bans are just some grammes heavier than their vanilla friends. On the similar time costs are massively decrease, at $300 to $400 a pop. Which means you possibly can have three pairs of those for a similar value, in nominal phrases, as one prototype model of Google Glass in 2014.
What’s unchanged is the dystopian idea of all-seeing — and all-capturing — eyes. Trying cool doesn’t render wearers incapable of doing uncool issues corresponding to surreptitious video recording, say. However rising gross sales recommend many have relegated these considerations to a back-burner.
Ought to sensible glasses be the most important breakthrough in wearables because the smartwatch, one of the simplest ways to play it for buyers is thru specs, fairly than tech.
Meta might dominate, however sensible glasses are chump change for the tech big — not less than till subscriptions or different add-ons seem. Suppose international gross sales attain 13mn models by 2026, and Meta retains its share at roughly three-quarters of that. Even based mostly on the retail value, glasses would account for lower than 5 days of this yr’s consensus gross sales. And the haul must be break up with EssilorLuxottica. Beginner gamers corresponding to Xiaomi, which launched AI glasses in June, could also be price a glance. Snap, too, is launching its new sensible specs to shoppers subsequent yr.
Eyewear makers and distributors could also be a greater guess. The phrases of the partnership between Meta and EssilorLuxottica haven’t been disclosed. However they’re smaller firms and targeted on the area, so the expansion strikes their dial extra meaningfully. Trying good, in any case, issues as a lot because the know-how.
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