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A pair of Ray-Ban Meta 2nd generation smart glasses is seen on display during the Meta Connect Developer Conference at Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California on September 27, 2023. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON \/ AFP) (Photo by JOSH EDELSON\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
It seems like you can\u2019t swing a cat without hitting a celebrity wearing smartglasses these days. From a viral video of Hudson Williams wearing Meta Ray-Bans<\/a> at a party to Kaia Gerber modeling for Snap\u2019s Specs<\/a> to Kylie Jenner partnering with Meta<\/a> on audio glasses, hardware manufacturers are leaning heavily into the consumer market. <\/p>\n So far, the results have been mixed. Meta reported shipping 7.4 million units<\/a> of smartglasses in 2025; that\u2019s not nothing, but nowhere near the sales numbers for devices like watches and smartphones. At the same time, there has been a growing anti-smartglasses trend on social media, which certainly has not been aided by Meta\u2019s mis-steps around privacy <\/a>and recording transparency (as of its latest round of updates, Meta glasses will disable the camera<\/a> if a user tampers with the privacy light). Whether the pushback is the result of Meta\u2019s policies or broader anti-tech vibes remains to be seen, but the fact remains that smartglasses remain a small market and backlash is starting to grow.<\/p>\n Which is why more smartglasses companies need to start thinking about alternative ways to enter the market. Luckily, there is a tried-and-true path in \u2013 targeting the enterprise first. Before personal computers were personal, they were used for work and education. We\u2019re all glued to our smartphones these days, but Palm Pilots and Blackberries set the table, and those were mostly used for productivity. While virtual reality struggled with consumer adoption, it is being used more widely in enterprise and training. <\/p>\n By targeting enterprise and productivity use cases, smartglasses companies can sell and build at scale while also setting themselves up for consumer adoption. Once the glasses become a more normal part of people\u2019s daily lives at work, they are likely to start thinking about ways to use them in the off-hours, and by that point will be comfortable with the form factor and able to wear them all the time, not just in the office or warehouse. <\/p>\n Some industries have been using smartglasses for many years, mostly in industrial and warehouse situations. The main challenge has been the form factor of the glasses, which are functional but not fashionable; luckily, most of the new wave of glasses coming to market have solved that problem. Limited use cases have also been an issue, but AI and more advanced lenses, as well as compute power, means that issue will be solved shortly. From here, the only roadblock is a lack of understanding what to build and how to build it. <\/p>\n But smartglasses can have positive impacts in almost every industry. Imagine a new employee at a fast food restaurant who needs to learn fast but has dyslexia and struggles with reading \u2013 now, rather than spending hours puzzling over guides and instructions, they can simply put on glasses and follow the steps outlined on the screen. Imagine a refugee who wants to work and contribute but doesn\u2019t speak the language of their new country \u2013 rather than not working or doing work they weren\u2019t trained for, live translation features in the glasses can help them overcome the language barrier. Imagine a medical professional who spends hours cranking their neck to look at a screen seeing the image in glasses, allowing them to see an ultrasound more clearly while saving their spine. <\/p>\n Imagine a busy attorney having the ability to view privileged content anywhere because their screen is connected to their glasses and they have complete privacy. Imagine an investigative journalist being able to more easily capture photos of corruption or abuse to share with the world, or an individual in a conflict zone being able to share their story from their perspective. <\/p>\n All of these use cases will normalize wearing smartglasses and interacting with them, as well as allowing people to think of smartglasses-native day-to-day applications. Right now, most content on glasses are just smartphone apps that have been ported on to a different display. This isn\u2019t bad, per se, and it helps create a built-in ecosystem to get started \u2013 but one day soon, there will be an Uber for glasses, an application that really couldn\u2019t have existed without the face-worn form factor. <\/p>\n Some glasses manufacturers have already started pushing in this space \u2013 Google has partnered with XReal to create the Aura<\/a>; Viture<\/a> launched a product for medicine and research; and Snap is building an enterprise division. Meta and others should push in this direction as well if they want to build long-term success and adoption. <\/p>\n