The CEO of Essilorluxottica sees the future in the hands of smart glasses

Essilorluxottica, one of the global leaders in the production of eye lenses and sunglasses, as well as the strategic partner of Meta in the development of smart glasses, believes that smartphones will soon be replaced with artificial intelligence glasses.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Francesco Milri, CEO and CEO of Essilorluxottica, predicted a bold claim that in the near future hundreds of millions of smart glasses would be linked to each other and the people they use. He also announced that the company is increasing its production capacity for smart glasses to 5 million units a year by the end of the year to respond to the demand of Meta and other partners, including for its NUance Audio audio glasses, which have hearing aid technology. This futuristic perspective reflects a change in great paradigm in the world of wearable technologies.

However, there seems to be a big gap between these aspirations and the realities of the market. Barclays analysts have predicted that cooperation with Meta could generate an income of more than € 5 billion for Essilorluxottica by the year, as well as estimating that the total annual supply of smart glasses will reach 5 million. But these figures are insignificant compared to the global smartphone market.

Apple, for example, sold 5 million iPhone devices alone in year 2. This statistical difference shows that although smart glasses have the potential to become a dominant technology media in everyday life, demand will not make such a big change in the near future given the current trends.

Meta is currently leading its innovative products in the field of smart glasses, and has even forced Apple to stop working on the advanced version of its Vision Pro headset and focus on developing artificial intelligence -equipped smart glasses. Meta has recently unveiled the new Ray-Ban Display smart glasses that have high resolution interior display to read the video watching the video watch and live translation.

This display with a brightness of both indoor and outdoor performance. The control interface of these glasses is called the Meta Neural Band, which allows users to control the brain and hand electrogramming signals by using hand movements and detecting electrogramming signals. These glasses are available for $ 2 and represent the significant progress of Meta in this competitive area.