Seeing Through the Reality of Meta’s Smart Glasses
By Brian X. Chen and Eli Tan, The New York Times
September 20, 2025
At Meta’s recent software developers conference in Menlo Park, California, CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage to unveil the company’s latest innovation: a pair of smart glasses equipped with cameras and a tiny display projected into the corner of the frame. The $800 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses aim to transform personal computing by running apps similar to a smartphone, suggesting a future where such wearable technology becomes mainstream.
A Glitch-Filled Unveiling Dampens Expectations
Despite the ambitious vision Zuckerberg presented—evoking memories of Steve Jobs’s legendary Apple product launches—the demonstration did not go as smoothly. Right on stage, the product suffered multiple glitches, including a video call that failed mid-presentation. Unlike Apple’s hallmark "big tent" product reveals, Zuckerberg’s appearance was met with skepticism and social media ridicule, turning the moment into a meme rather than a triumph.
Meta’s Struggles in the Smart Glasses Market
These public missteps have challenged the carefully crafted image Meta has built around these glasses in recent years. Marketing materials and influencer videos had suggested that Meta was poised to become a dominant force in computing hardware, potentially rivaling industry leaders like Apple and Samsung. However, the reality tells a different story.
Since the launch of its $300 Ray-Ban Meta camera glasses in 2023, Meta has sold about two million units — far below the scale expected for a company of its size. Meta hopes to ramp up sales to 10 million units annually by the end of 2026, yet this remains a modest target compared to flagship products from competitors. For context, Apple sells hundreds of millions of iPhones annually and tens of millions of smartwatches, though its recent Vision Pro headset remains a niche product with only a few hundred thousand units shipped.
Heavy Investment Without Profitability
Over the past decade, Meta has invested more than $100 billion into its virtual and augmented reality division, which includes the smart glasses. Despite these massive expenditures, the division has not been profitable, posting a $4.5 billion loss in the last quarter alone, nearly unchanged from the previous year.
Progress and Persistent Challenges
Meta’s smart glasses are making some technical strides. Unlike earlier bulky headsets such as Google Glass, the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses are lightweight and stylish, resembling normal eyewear. Battery life is estimated at around six hours, sufficient for daily use. Alex Himel, Meta’s executive overseeing augmented reality, noted that the company optimized the component layout tightly within the glasses and programmed the screen to turn off quickly after inactivity to conserve power.
Yet, in a 30-minute hands-on test by The New York Times’ Eli Tan, the glasses showed intermittent issues. A wristband designed to detect hand gestures for app controls occasionally failed to register finger swipes. Meta attributed these problems to crowded Wi-Fi networks at the event.
The Trust and Privacy Problem
A more significant hurdle than technical glitches is trust. Meta’s longstanding reputation for mishandling user data has left many consumers wary. The smart glasses, equipped with subtle cameras and microphones, heighten privacy concerns as they can record surroundings discreetly. Although a tiny light indicates when recording is active, it can be easily missed.
Carolina Milanesi, a consumer technology analyst at Creative Strategies, explained that privacy worries extend beyond users to everyone around them who may be unknowingly filmed. Such concerns have manifested in real-world instances: influencers filming covertly, backlash on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, and an alarming FBI report linked to a man using the glasses to scout a location before a truck attack in New Orleans.
Market Reception and Industry Context
Charting a successful path forward for wearable smart glasses remains uncertain. Analysts forecast that due to the high cost and privacy concerns, Meta’s Ray-Ban Display will remain a niche product for the foreseeable future.
Other tech giants are also developing smart glasses, including Google—who revealed prototypes powered by its AI chatbot Gemini—and Apple, reportedly working on comparable devices. These competitors may enjoy an advantage as they generally have stronger consumer trust.
Meta’s Financial Cushion and Future Outlook
Despite the hurdles, Meta’s robust profits from its core online advertising business—$18.3 billion in the most recent quarter—afford it the ability to continue investing heavily in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and wearable computing without immediate pressure to turn a profit.
Zuckerberg acknowledged the risks of these investments but expressed a willingness to aggressively pursue innovation: “If we end up misspending a couple of hundred billion dollars, I think that is going to be very unfortunate. But I think the risk, at least for a company like Meta, is probably in not being aggressive enough.”
Conclusion
Meta’s smart glasses represent a bold attempt to innovate in personal computing, but the path forward is obstructed by technical glitches, trust deficits, and privacy concerns. Whether these issues can be overcome will determine if wearable glasses can join the ranks of transformative consumer technology — or remain a niche novelty.
Brian X. Chen is The Times’s lead consumer technology writer. Eli Tan covers technology for The Times from San Francisco.
