In the wearable smart tech landscape, the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are fast emerging as among the most successful. While still relatively new to the market, they’ve already established themselves as global bestsellers. According to Meta leader Mark Zuckerberg, the current generation of smart glasses has outsold their predecessors. The sales of the last few months alone have already vastly outpaced past sales made in two years. Across key regions, including Europe and the Middle East, 60% of physical Ray-Ban stores report that these specs outsell even other popular styles, including the iconic Clubmasters and Aviators.
As further proof that this drive to innovate is nowhere near slowing down, Ray-Ban and Meta recently announced that the specs would receive a multi-modal AI update. This sees new features that further improve the real-life functionality of these products.
A primer on these next-gen smart specs
Originally launched in 2021 under the name Ray-Ban Stories, the smart glasses currently on the market belong to the second generation. This was released in 2023, along with a name change to Ray-Ban Meta. As compared to older models, which were primarily designed for content creation and sharing, the newer-gen smart specs are powered by more advanced Meta technologies. This has effectively broadened its usage occasion. For starters, aside from the 12MP cameras cameras, microphones, and speakers, the present-day specs also respond to voice commands. By simply saying, “Hey Meta,” the user can request the AI virtual assistant to make calls, play music, record videos, capture stills, and the like.
In terms of availability, these are widely sold in brick-and-mortar establishments and online stores. In addition to Ray-Ban’s official website, the smart glasses are available through a range of other high-profile retailers as well. The leading eyewear e-commerce website Glasses.com hosts Ray-Ban Metas as part of its selection of premium glasses. Alongside the super popular Ray-Ban Metas, shoppers can find other models from Ray-Ban, like their iconic Aviators and Wayfarers, and even newer offerings like the Caribbean and RB5387 Optics. The Ray-Ban Metas are also now available in multiple styles. This includes the original Wayfarers, alongside the more recent Headliner and Skyler. As these silhouettes range from more streamlined square frames to bold, modern cat-eyes, it’s easy to see how Meta and Ray-Ban’s aesthetics make them more appealing for everyday wear, explaining their surging popularity. In terms of other marketing efforts, Ray-Ban and Meta themselves have also been cementing strategic collabs with celebrities, the most recent of which includes musician Anderson .Paak. This has helped the glasses receive even more native traffic, with fans happily sharing related content on sites like Instagram.
Unveiling Ray-Ban Meta’s new AI rollouts
Just this year, Meta revealed that the current iteration of smart glasses would receive a multimodal AI update via Computer Vision. During an October appearance at Meta Connect, Zuckerberg finally explained what these updates would bring about in terms of new quality-of-life improvements. This is in contrast to other players in the advanced eyewear market, like XReal. Notably, the company has been working to enhance its AR glasses offerings to provide better video content consumption.
With the AI multimodal solutions, the Ray-Ban Metas can now function almost akin to personal wearable computers. For one, the Meta AI can now be used to answer real-time questions with regard to the wearer’s surroundings. As a result, it can make speedy calculations and online searches before relaying said answers to the wearer. In line with this, since the glasses are “always on,” the wearer won’t need to start off with a prompt telling the AI what to “look” at. This makes for an even more seamless line of data sharing.
With this same awareness, the AI can also be used to set reminders. This is achieved thanks to the AI’s ability to pre-file relevant information in a specific context. Given that accessibility is also a big concern with regards to smart tech, Ray-Ban Metas are now enabled with live translations and a strategic partnership. In terms of the latter, this is done via a partnership with “Be My Eyes,” which is an existing program wherein a sighted volunteer can act as a remote helper to visually impaired users. Such an effort towards broadening the diversity of its users is now new to Ray-Ban’s parent company, EssilorLuxottica. Recently, the industry leader acquired Nuance Audio, which is a manufacturer of hearing aid glasses. These are designed to act as an intersection between hearing and sight, similarly helping address the needs of the disabled community, much like the new Ray-Ban Meta effort.
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