Meta Platforms launched its first smart glasses ready for the consumer on Wednesday with an integrated screen, seeking to extend the momentum of its Ray-Ban line, one of the first consumer successes in the era of artificial intelligence.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed Meta Ray-Ban display and a new bracelet controller, receiving applause during Meta’s Connect event despite some demonstration problems.
Meta tasted success with her smart glasses, and Zuckerberg described them as the ideal way for humans to reach the promise of the AI of “superintelligence”.
“Glasses are the ideal form factor for personal superintendent, because they allow you to remain present in the moment while having access to all these AI capabilities that make you smarter, help you to communicate better, improve your memory, improve your senses, and even more,” said Zuckerberg.
The new display glasses have a small digital screen in the right for basic tasks such as notifications. They will start at $ 799 and will be available on September 30 in stores. The price included is a bracelet that translates hand gestures into controls such as the response to SMS and calls.
The launch of the annual Meta annual connection conference for developers, which was held in its head office in Menlo Park, California, is its last attempt to catch up in the high -staked challenges race.
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Although the social media giant was at the forefront of the development of smart glasses, it follows rivals such as Openai and Googl.o Google of alphabet in the deployment of advanced AI models.
Zuckerberg launched a war on the Silicon Valley talents to poach engineers from its competitors and promised to spend tens of billions of dollars for advanced AI fleas.
The new glasses come while Meta is faced with a meticulous examination on her management of children’s safety on her social media platforms.
Reuters reported in August that Meta Chatbots engaged children in proactive sex and race conversations, while the denunciators said this month that researchers had been informed not to study the harmful effects of virtual reality on children.
Oakley glasses offered for sport
Meta also unveiled on Wednesday a new pair of Oakley brand glasses called Vanguard, intended for athletes and at a price of $ 499. The device fits into fitness platforms such as Garmin and Strava to provide real-time training statistics and post-training summaries and offers nine hours of autonomy. It will be available from October 21.
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It has also updated its previous Ray-Ban line, which has no integrated display but now offers almost twice the battery life of the previous generation and a better camera at $ 379, higher than the price of $ 299 of the previous generation.
Although analysts do not expect the display glasses to display solid sales, they believe that it could be a step towards the planned launch of Meta’s “Orion” glasses. Meta unveiled a prototype of this last year and Zuckerberg described it as “the time machine for the future”.
Forrester analyst Mike Proulx said that the posting beginnings reminded him of the introduction by Apple of a watch as an alternative to the smartphone.
“Glasses are a daily and non-costume factor,” he said. Meta will always have to convince people that the advantages were worth the cost, he said, but “there is a lot of track to gain market share”.
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All devices have existing features such as Meta AI assistant, cameras, hands -free control and live broadcasting on the company’s social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.
Zuckerberg demos of new display glasses did not all go as planned, with a call to glasses that do not reach, for example.
“I don’t know what to tell you guys,” said Zuckerberg. “I continue to play this.” The crowd applauded to support.
“This is a great value for the technology you get,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for trackers of IDC world mobile devices, about display glasses.
But the software will have to catch up.
“Until we got there, it is not really a device that the average consumer could know or worry about buying,” said Ubrani.
IDC provides that global augmented reality expeditions / Virtual reality headsets and smart glasses without display will increase from 39.2% in 2025 to 14.3 million units, the meta leading a large part of the growth thanks to the smaller ray demand that it does with the owner of Ray-Banorluxticictic
