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The smart glasses race is heating up fast and there are a lot of smart glasses and Meta is introducing a lot more smart glasses. I'm here in New York and I'm actually trying on a whole bunch of new designs that they have here that have just been announced u including one that is designed with Kylie Jenner. Meta's newest line of smart glasses are about the fashion. So there are a whole bunch of new designs. They're also about price. This year still being made with EssilorLuxottica which is the partnership they announced when they started making glasses with Ray-Ban and
Oakley branding but these start at 299. So the idea is to get it to a more affordable price. Hence no specific branding on these but they're still being made using EssilorLuxottica glasses technology and design and their design and their glasses making skills. They're still going to be sold in a similar way to existing Ray-ban and Oakley glasses uh in that you get them online from Esalor. You can also get them in stores. Um, they also fit a wider range of prescriptions. That's been happening over time, but they're finally starting to accommodate uh my eye prescription.
A lot of the design otherwise is pretty similar to what I've been actually wearing in the Scriber and Blazer Optics glasses that were announced with Ray-ban branding earlier this year. These are aiming to be more comfortable. So, they have flexier arms on them now, and they also apparently have adjustable temple tips, which is new. Uh, my other model does not have that. They also have a dedicated Meta AI button that kind of flex toggles between camera and AI mode here. That's new. But, you know, the again the focus here is on design. Meta is not addressing elements of privacy and
AI or any changes to the AI platform. Andrew Bosworth, Meta's CTO, who's here in New York, said that Meta's considerations for privacy are the same as they've always been, which is well, for me, pretty confusing and not that great. But over time, they may have to address that. I mean, I think they will. The other question is, are they going to make glasses without a camera? When asked on stage, Andrew Bosworth said, "It's definitely a consideration, especially to get to a different price and maybe to get around some of the concerns people are having about having
cameras on your glasses. But for now, if you see pairs of these, it's about different fit and style and also probably getting a leg up on Google's glasses with Warby Parker and General Monster that should be launching somewhere around August or September. We'll find out." That's kind of what's going on here. I mean, this is about design. What I'm curious about is what happens after that. You know, we have Google glasses that are going to be working with Android and Gemini that are coming out in the fall that I've tried. We have rumors of Apple glasses. We have Snap's huge augmented
reality glasses at a very high price and a number of other companies making things too. And uh Meta is obviously staying in the game with a lot of different designs, but not necessarily change changing the equation here of what the glasses are or what they're necessarily priced to be.
