Meta bets on a future with smart glasses
Will Orion be a seminal product or a forgotten prototype?
In case you haven't heard the news, Mark Zuckerberg and the folks at Meta had a pretty interesting presentation this week.
Many topics were discussed, but perhaps the most noteworthy thing was called Orion.
Orion is a prototype of a potential new computing platform. It's a holographic display that can be worn in a pair of glasses. And the glasses honestly don't look a whole lot different than a standard pair of specs. Sure, they're a little thick, but for all of that computing power found inside, it seems like a decent trade-off.
What can you do with these glasses? Well, nothing yet. There is a chance that they may never make it to a finalized consumer product. But it's clear that Zuckerberg is betting on this as the next big thing in computing.
It's not too dissimilar to the bet that Apple is making with their Vision headset. They're still just tweaking the form factor. I think all of these companies would prefer consumers to be wearing lightweight glasses all day rather than massive headsets only for specific sessions of time. It's just a matter of when the technology can catch up to the use cases.
Getting back to Orion, it also offers some fascinating input methods. Of course you can use standard hand gestures that have become fairly common on VR headsets. But how about wearing a special bracelet that gives you even more subtle control over manipulating the interface with small finger movements? These are all things that will ultimately make it more comfortable and less embarrassing to use a product like this in public spaces. No one wants to be talking to themselves on the train or making grand gestures with their arms just to open up some apps on their headset.
Instead, you can look out the window wearing a very normal pair of glasses and control things with subtle hand gestures that wouldn't be detectable in most situations. Meta is looking to eliminate as much friction as possible here. The lighter, easier, and less conspicuous these devices are, the better chance for adoption.
Announcements of prototypes like this should always be taken with a grain of salt. It was noteworthy that Zuckerberg said they at least had "a few thousand" of these Orion headsets bouncing around. They're further along than just having one magical prototype. This technology is somewhat proven at this stage. Now they have the tall task of making the product smaller, lighter, and less dorky-looking. And at the same time, they're going to need to get it to be offered at a manageable price point.
mIf you were reading between the lines, Zuckerberg seemed to hint that this product would be sold for a price that is "similar to a computer". To me, that means around $2,000. That would put it squarely above the more budget-friendly Quest headsets but also below the current Apple Vision Pro price of $3,500. And that prices seems about right.
No, I won't be in line to be the first one to own it at that price. They'll need to really show off some compelling use cases to get anyone by the earliest early adopter to jump in. And maybe that's ok. But if they can piece together some killer apps in the next 2-3 years and offer it up for less than $2,000 looking more hip and svelte, they could have a winner on their hands over the 2026 holiday season.
I should also point out that Meta announced a very cool translucent version of their current Meta Rayban Smart Glasses. These give off some 90s Gameboy or dare I say Cybiko vibes and I would love to have a pair. It seems like only a few thousand have been created so it may be hard to get my hands on them.
The point here is that Meta has a vision of the future. They are going all-in on this visual computing thing. It may not be the exact Metaverse that they predicted a few years ago, but it's something. I think it's great that a company who've mostly just delivered social media software that most would argue has been on the decline, is now positioning itself as a serious hardware manufacturer.
Will we all be viewing the future through a set of Meta glasses? Is that future two years away? Ten years away? Will Zuckerberg just trash this idea and move onto something else soon if it doesn't seem profitable? Who knows? But I'm pretty excited to follow along on the journey.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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