Are Ray-Ban Meta glasses actually successful?

At this week’s Meta Connect convention, CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched new Ray-Ban Meta Display glasses with the “Meta Neural Band” (that you simply put on in your wrist), wraparound Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses, and the second iteration of Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

During a glitch-filled keynote presentation, Zuckerberg gave an replace on the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which the corporate doesn’t disclose gross sales figures for:

“This is now our third year shipping AI glasses with our great partner, EssilorLuxottica. And the sales trajectory that we’ve seen is similar to some of the most popular consumer electronics of all time.”

This acquired us questioning about how the gross sales for Meta’s chunky-framed face computer systems stack as much as “some of the most popular consumer electronics of all time.”

As we famous, Meta hasn’t launched exhausting numbers for the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, however in January The Verge reported that Zuckerberg instructed Meta staff that over 1 million Ray-Ban Meta glasses have been bought in 2024. Assuming that gross sales tempo was the identical when Meta began promoting the glasses a number of months earlier in October 2023, it took the corporate roughly a 12 months to promote 1 million glasses.

For comparability, we picked a number of of the bestselling client electronics of all time that additionally helped outline a brand new class of leisure or leisure gadget. Yes, Apple is in right here rather a lot, however the firm has outlined a bunch of latest classes through the years.

Looking again at iconic devices like Sony’s Walkman moveable cassette participant, the gross sales trajectories of hit merchandise is just not all the time regular. Released in 1979, the primary technology of the Walkman (which bought for about $120 in 1979 {dollars}) was successful in Japan, and the corporate couldn’t produce sufficient to maintain up with demand.

It took two years for the first-gen Walkman to achieve 1.5 million in gross sales. Its follow-up, 1981’s Walkman WM-2, grew to become a world hit, promoting 1 million models in 9 months. In the primary decade of their existence, Sony bought 50 million Walkmans.

Apple’s iPod dominated client electronics for a decade, heralding the transition to digital music. The firm bought an estimated 450 million of the units throughout its greater than 20-year lifespan, however the first soap-bar-sized iteration took greater than a 12 months and a half to maneuver 1,000,000 models.

While Meta positively beat out the unique iPod to 1 million models, it isn’t even near Apple’s different category-defining devices’ time to get to 1 million bought.

“Billions of AI glasses” and billions in losses

By all accounts, Zuckerberg appears extraordinarily devoted to the success of Reality Labs’ digital/augmented/combined actuality glasses and headsets. After all, he did rename the corporate in an audacious wager that its future can be outlined by the “metaverse” (however now can also be all in on “superintelligence.”)

“This will be a defining year that determines if we’re on a path toward many hundreds of millions, and eventually billions, of AI glasses, and glasses being the next computing platform, like we’ve been talking about for some time — or if this is just going to be a longer grind,” the Meta CEO stated throughout his firm’s earnings name earlier this 12 months.

Indeed, the corporate has been grinding away for greater than 4 years on the metaverse, regardless of a lack of consumer interest and customers who don’t come again. The early cartoonish graphics and weird legless avatars of “Horizon Worlds” could also be a factor of the previous, however six years after its introduction, Zuckerberg remains to be exhibiting off a imaginative and prescient of individuals hanging out with their associates of their digital bachelor pads. At this week’s occasion, after exhibiting off new metaverse merchandise for creators like Meta Horizon Studio and Meta Horizon Engine, Zuckerberg stated:

“I am really excited about what these new technologies are going to unlock for artists and entertainment. I think that the shift toward more immersive storytelling and 3D storytelling, it’s going to be one of the more exciting developments in the coming years, and I think that it’s going to drive a new wave of adoption of virtual reality and glasses.”

The losses that Reality Labs has posted are staggering. Since This fall 2020, when the corporate first disclosed such numbers, the R&D-heavy division has racked up almost $70 billion in losses. At the identical time, income has been largely flat. But with $47 billion in income final quarter, the corporate is ready to maintain half a decade’s price of losses, although additionally it is spending enormous sums on AI infrastructure and expertise.

Early evaluations of Meta’s new Ray-Ban Meta Display glasses have been largely positive, regardless of the awkward launch occasion. It stays to be seen whether or not Reality Labs merchandise like Ray-Ban Meta glasses are on a gradual burn to success like Apple’s iPod, however till thousands and thousands extra shoppers begin placing Meta’s merchandise on their faces, the losses will maintain piling up.

Meta didn’t reply to a request for remark.