Is Oprah Right About the Appeal of Meta's Smart Glasses? - RetailWire
Following Google Glass’ widely covered failure, Meta has a hit with Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, including landing a spot on Oprah Winfrey’s holiday gift guide this year.
“The gift of the season!” Winfrey exclaimed on OprahDaily.com. “I’ll be giving these to lots of folks this year. Ray-Ban and Meta’s newest glasses can tell you what you’re looking at in a new city, translate a menu from a foreign language, play music, snap photos, take a phone call, and more. The traveler, the techie, and the trendsetter will dive right in.”
The Appeal of Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
Ray-Ban Meta glasses are basically ordinary glasses that come with a camera, speaker, and voice-command capabilities powered by AI, essentially avoiding the hassle of doing the same tasks with a mobile phone.
Meta proclaimed in a recent blog post, “Available in Wayfarer, Skyler, and Headliner frames in a range of color and lens options, Ray-Ban Meta glasses let you live in the moment and share it, hands-free. Be fully present while taking, sharing, and saving high-quality photos and videos. Take a voice or video call on the go so you can connect with your people without disconnecting from your world. Share your point of view by livestreaming to Facebook and Instagram. Play your favorite mix or listen to podcasts without losing the ambient sounds of your surroundings. And use your voice to interact with Meta AI, your smart assistant that can help you learn something new, create captions, and translate text on the fly.
Public Opinion Shift on Smart Glasses
The generally positive reviews (well beyond Oprah) reflect a big shift in public opinion around smart glasses after the arrival of Google Glass ignited privacy concerns.
Another difference is Meta’s glasses have a more subtle design, which embraces the streetwear style of Ray-Ban compared to Google Glass’ robotic design. Prakhar Khanna wrote for ZDNET, “When you look at Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, they look and feel like sunglasses instead of a gadget. That subtlety is a standout feature for me.”
Future of Smart Glasses
Meta’s success is reportedly encouraging others, including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Samsung, to reinvest in the smart glass opportunity.
Also writing for TechRadar, Eric Hal Schwartz recently heralded that 2025 “will be the year of the AI smart glasses.”
Privacy Concerns
Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses recently received some negative press, however, after reports arrived that two Harvard students created a program for the smart glasses that enabled them to identify strangers in real-time, including their names and addresses.
According to the two students, they don’t plan to release the program, which they claimed they developed to “highlight [the] significant privacy concerns” associated with the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.
