Here’s a suggestion for Mark Zuckerberg: Maybe you should...

Jerome Cody

·6 days ago

shared a link post in group #Gadgetsvia#Artificial Intelligence

Here’s a suggestion for Mark Zuckerberg: Maybe you should ditch AI model development and spend even more on smart glasses! Meta Platforms on Tuesday unveiled its latest selection of smart glasses, devised with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica, and it’s hard not to be impressed with the way they  look. Meta would seem to have more chance of succeeding with smart glasses than beating the leading AI labs in developing state-of-the-art models. #Gadgets 

One big question is just what anyone’s using these glasses for. Meta says glasses are “the most exciting hardware category of the #Artificial Intelligence era,” and with that in mind, its smart glasses have its AI assistant built in. But my bet, based on asking random wearers of the glasses, is that they are using them as a convenient way to make phone calls, listen to music and take photos more than anything else. (We suspect Meta would disagree.) Even if that is all anyone is using the glasses for, though, that’s not nothing.

Many people will likely find glasses that make phone calls and play music a big advance over other wearables. (How many brands of earbuds have to fall out of my ears onto the street before I get an ear infection? Just wondering.) And by getting these glasses in widespread circulation, Meta has one up on other companies—including Google, OpenAI and eventually Apple—who are likely to follow with their own AI-equipped wearables. 

At $299 a pair, the new styles are $80 cheaper than the older Ray-Bans Meta line introduced a couple of years ago and $200 cheaper than a new line of Ray-Ban Meta Optics unveiled in March. While buyers who need prescription lenses will have to fork over a lot more, Meta’s pricing should be low enough to entice even more people to buy a pair. 

So far, demand is growing—Meta says sales tripled last year—but EssilorLuxottica said it sold 7 million pairs of AI glasses, which means the market is still relatively small. (By comparison, the smartphone market this year will be 1.09 billion units, according to IDC). Still, Zuckerberg has a point when he notes that billions of people wear glasses or contacts for vision correction. He said in January, “I think we’re in a moment similar to when smartphones arrived,” replacing flip phones. “It’s hard to imagine a world in several years where most glasses that people wear aren’t AI glasses.” That’s probably true.

https://www.meta.com/blog..

www.meta.com

Introducing Meta Glasses: A Range of New Styles from Meta and EssilorLuxottica, Starting at $299

Today, in partnership with EssilorLuxottica, we’re introducing Meta Glasses. Building on all the technology and features of the world’s best-selling AI glasses, this new line features bold and timeless shapes, rich colors, and premium materials, all consciously crafted and starting at just $299.

Jerome Cody

·6 days ago

shared a link post in group #Gadgetsvia#Artificial Intelligence

Here’s a suggestion for Mark Zuckerberg: Maybe you should ditch AI model development and spend even more on smart glasses! Meta Platforms on Tuesday unveiled its latest selection of smart glasses, devised with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica, and it’s hard not to be impressed with the way they  look. Meta would seem to have more chance of succeeding with smart glasses than beating the leading AI labs in developing state-of-the-art models. #Gadgets 

One big question is just what anyone’s using these glasses for. Meta says glasses are “the most exciting hardware category of the #Artificial Intelligence era,” and with that in mind, its smart glasses have its AI assistant built in. But my bet, based on asking random wearers of the glasses, is that they are using them as a convenient way to make phone calls, listen to music and take photos more than anything else. (We suspect Meta would disagree.) Even if that is all anyone is using the glasses for, though, that’s not nothing.

Many people will likely find glasses that make phone calls and play music a big advance over other wearables. (How many brands of earbuds have to fall out of my ears onto the street before I get an ear infection? Just wondering.) And by getting these glasses in widespread circulation, Meta has one up on other companies—including Google, OpenAI and eventually Apple—who are likely to follow with their own AI-equipped wearables. 

At $299 a pair, the new styles are $80 cheaper than the older Ray-Bans Meta line introduced a couple of years ago and $200 cheaper than a new line of Ray-Ban Meta Optics unveiled in March. While buyers who need prescription lenses will have to fork over a lot more, Meta’s pricing should be low enough to entice even more people to buy a pair. 

So far, demand is growing—Meta says sales tripled last year—but EssilorLuxottica said it sold 7 million pairs of AI glasses, which means the market is still relatively small. (By comparison, the smartphone market this year will be 1.09 billion units, according to IDC). Still, Zuckerberg has a point when he notes that billions of people wear glasses or contacts for vision correction. He said in January, “I think we’re in a moment similar to when smartphones arrived,” replacing flip phones. “It’s hard to imagine a world in several years where most glasses that people wear aren’t AI glasses.” That’s probably true.

https://www.meta.com/blog..

www.meta.com