According to the Wall Street Journal, less than 10% of Ray-Ban Stories owners wear them regularly. Meta and Ray-Ban, who have teamed up for this project, would not be more successful than their competitors.
Mark Zuckerberg dreams of a world where everyone wears augmented reality glasses. An ambitious goal, which technology does not yet allow us to achieve. In the meantime, the Meta group is betting on the metaverse, mixed reality and connected sunglasses, in partnership with Ray-Ban. Its objective is to educate people to wear glasses incorporating technologies, until augmented reality is mature.
Unfortunately for Meta, not everything would go as planned. The Wall Street Journal, which has had access to confidential figures, indicates that 300,000 pairs of Ray-Ban Stories glasses have been sold worldwide, but that only 27,000 people use them at least once a month. In other words, their owners would find no use for it.
Meta would fail like the others
Why don’t Ray-Ban Stories owners use them? The WSJ says that 13% of shoppers return their glasses before the end of the withdrawal period, which is a high rate for the industry. Among the problems cited, there is in particular the low autonomy of the glasses or connectivity problems, to transfer the images captured with the product. Numerama, who tested them, could add their poor sealing, their lack of heat resistance or the use of proprietary screws, which block repairs.
A few days before the Wall Street Journal article, Numerama wrote a similar article on the failure of connected sunglasses, which were trendy a summer or two ago. Our observation is as follows: Bose, Huawei and Snap have all three withdrawn from the market, although they have long been defenders of the concept.
What’s next for Ray-Ban Stories? A priori, Meta would not be satisfied with this failure. The group plans to announce a second generation of Ray-Ban Stories in fall 2023 or spring 2024, with more battery life, better cameras and new designs. Its aim is to raise the bar, even if connected sunglasses seem more unpopular than ever.
Do you want to know everything about the mobility of tomorrow, from electric cars to pedelecs? Subscribe now to our Watt Else newsletter!