Apparently, Apple AR glasses are coming next year. Here’s why we think they’ll fail.
Remember when glasses were thought to make you look smart? Now we have tech giants trying to promote smart glasses — though with little success so far. You might remember Google Glass from 2013, the overpriced, high-tech looking eyewear straight out of The Terminator. Even Snap (the company behind Snapchat) launched “Spectacles” in 2016, which were camera fitted eyewear that would capture spontaneous moments in your daily life. Because apparently taking out the phone to capture photos in videos is too time consuming for its hip audience.
But a stuttered launch with ineffective promotions and hardware issues quickly killed the buzz.
According to TechCrunch, only 0.08% of Snapchat’s users ever bought its camera sunglasses.
The most recent to this list was Stories, brought to you by the collaboration between Facebook and Ray-Ban in September this year.
Facebook on your face?
We think that it’s actually quite a smart move, these frames look like normal sunglasses and are light and usable. Audio functionality and 3 mics make listening to podcasts and taking calls quite convenient. On first glance they look like a personal fashion accessory (exactly what eyewear should be). But there’s heavy baggage that might pull its sales down — privacy concerns around ̶F̶a̶c̶e̶b̶o̶o̶̶k Meta.
After the whistleblower controversy, their metaverse launch was also greeted with privacy concerns. Discreet sunglasses which can act as spy eyewear doesn’t help the cause. According to The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern — who wore them for a week — the LED lights which indicate that the user is recording are very discreet.
Wary of wearables
For the uninitiated, Bose is a major audio player, best known for its speakers and home audio players. With bluetooth audio frames the speaker giant has also entered the eyewear market — well, sort of. This functionality again enables you to listen to songs, podcasts, etc, while on the run.
Xiaomi, the Chinese mobile leader, is also working on smart glasses. These are only a few of the host of companies entering the wearables market. Whatever your favourite accessory — watches, shoes, glasses — they might soon be a part of one single industry: tech.
Every technology has its own shortcomings. That doesn’t mean it will not be a success. But, in the case of smart glasses, their shortcomings have become a major obstacle to their success, at least till now.
When we started making glasses in 2018, we had one objective — to help change the perception around glasses.
For decades glasses have been thought of as a nerdy optical tool. You must have seen the stereotypical geek character in movies who wears thick glasses and is good in studies. But that is changing now; people are realising that eyeglasses are an intimate, individual fashion accessory.
There are different styles and shapes to choose from which flatter your look. Especially as WFH has become more popular, there are not many options to express your individuality. Imagine wearing a new pair of sleek titanium or distinguished-looking tortoiseshell glasses for your Zoom meeting, even if you don’t have eye power. We weren’t surprised when we noted that more than 30% of our orders this year were non-prescription glasses.
The existing smart glasses, apart from Facebook Ray-Ban Stories have failed to capitalise on this. These glasses lack a fashion touch and are more of a tech-heavy product, which people find inconvenient to carry as they go through their day to day activities.
That’s not to say there’s no place for tech — like smart watches, glasses too might become popular among mainstream users. A few years down the line, we might start making camera- and speaker-enabled glasses too if they offer value to our customers (but with prominent LEDs, promise.)
For now, we’ll stick to making cool, consciously made eyewear priced under £100. Eyewear which may not be able to take photos but which looks awesome in photographs
