Long-term partnerships help tech companies put out products that add value for customers. Meta and Ray-Ban owner EssilorLuxottica have extended their partnership into the next decade. The two announced an agreement to extend a partnership that started in 2019 and has already produced two generations of Ray-Ban smart glasses.
The first iteration launched in late 2021 and was known as Ray-Ban Stories. The device was promising but it didn’t find many takers because it looked like a slightly bulkier Ray-Ban and offered decent audio quality through tiny speakers at mid-range volume. The 2023 Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses did very well because of its slimmer frames, hands-free photo messaging and Instagram livestreaming abilities, besides offering an improved 12MP ultra-wide camera.
“I’m excited about our long-term roadmap ahead. We have the opportunity to turn glasses into the next major technology platform, and make it fashionable in the process,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.
The news may offer a blow to rumours about Google looking to partner with EssilorLuxottica over smart glasses that would integrate the company’s Gemini AI. It’s unclear when Google plans to move forward with smart glasses plans but the company is working towards that goal as it showed off “Project Astra”, a multimodal AI assistant, at Google I/O on a pair of smart glasses.
In July, there were reports that suggested Meta might take a five per cent stake in EssilorLuxottica but that’s still in the air.
The company that is constantly coming up with cutting-edge wearable tech is Snap Inc., which this week unveiled the fifth generation of its Spectacles, standalone AR glasses designed to show real-world interactions through Snap OS, a new operating system. It weighs only 226 grams and the glasses feature four cameras for advanced hand tracking, a see-through AR display, and vibrant micro-projectors.
Spectacles can integrate with mobile devices through an app. It’s powered by dual Snapdragon processors and offer up to 45 minutes of runtime. Spectacles are available through the Spectacles Developer Programme for $99 per month.
