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Meta and Google are going toe to toe for the smart glasses market

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By Abdullah Asim

Published: Jul 23, 2024, 1:11 AM

Meta and Google are going toe to toe for the smart glasses market

EssilorLuxottica, the company that made the Meta-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses, is currently acting as the rope in a tug of war match between Meta and Google. Meta needs EssilorLuxottica to cooperate on the third iteration of Ray-Ban’s smart glasses. Google, on the other hand, has its own plans.

Meta is allegedly quite close to acquiring a 5 percent stake in EssilorLuxottica. This comes as no surprise: the Ray-Ban smart glasses have been a much greater success than initially anticipated. So much so, in fact, that Meta restructured its XR division to focus more on wearables. Not to mention the fact that Meta is heavily invested in making AI-powered AR smart glasses a reality.

But Google has grand dreams of a Google Glass 2, it seems. The Project Astra showcase at Google I/O this year showed off a pair of AI-powered smart glasses as well. And apparently, the tech giant has also approached EssilorLuxottica to design smart glasses that use Gemini. Gemini, of course, is Google’s flagship AI model.

Who knew smart glasses without a display would become so popular? | Video credit — Meta

All of this puts EssilorLuxottica in quite a favorable position, in my opinion. But it also means that the average VR enthusiast will probably have more excellent devices to look forward to in the near future.

The Ray-Ban smart glasses, now that they’re powered by Meta AI, can do a lot even without a display. For example, translating menus in foreign languages or identifying landmarks when you’re on vacation. Just imagine how much more useful, and cool, they will be with a display.

And if Meta’s claims about the AR glasses it’s working on are true, those glasses will leave people in awe. I, for one, cannot wait to judge whether they belong in our list of the best AR glasses.

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Abdullah loves smartphones, Virtual Reality, and audio gear. Though he covers a wide range of news his favorite is always when he gets to talk about the newest VR venture or when Apple sets the industry ablaze with another phenomenal release.

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