This article is featured in the Q3 2025 Future Strategist newsletter, you can read the rest of the newsletter here.
2012 saw the release of Google Glass, a futuristic looking smart glass equipped with a built-in camera, voice control and heads-up display. Although an early pioneer in the wearable tech space, this experimental prototype was undeniably ahead of its time – both technology-wise and in consumer readiness.
Fast forward to today and we are one step closer to Artificial General Intelligence. We have seen AI fundamentally transform our environment from interaction through voice command processing and immersive context-aware features with object recognition. Meanwhile, attitudes toward public camera use have also shifted dramatically and now largely normalised. Yet the true inflection point for smart glasses was not a radical reinvention – it was a subtle evolution of glasses design currently worn by billons.
Google Glass (2012) versus Meta Ray Ban (2025)
Source: Google unveils prototype ‘smart’ glasses
Sources: Meta Ray-Ban Display: Breakthrough AI Glasses
Meta’s smart glasses success is the result of a strategic partnership with EssilorLuxottica, the global eyewear group behind Ray-Ban and Oakley. EssilorLuxottica manages manufacturing, retail and logistics across 18,000 stores, while Meta supplies the software and AI models. This partnership is redefining the eyewear industry.
By embedding advanced AI into the iconic Ray-Ban frames, we get eyewear that looks like normal premium glasses but features a 12-megapixel camera, Meta’s powerful AI engine, open-ear audio and seamless connectivity. Demand for their smart glasses has surged well beyond expectations, with Mark Zuckerberg even admitting the company “dramatically underestimated” interest. For context, one million units were sold in 2024, with sales of Ray-Ban Meta sunglasses tripling in the first half of the year. They are now racing to scale production to 10 million units annually by 2026, with analyst estimates expecting to ship around 35 million units by 2028.
However, despite the impressive momentum, three significant challenges remain:
- Battery life: Most models struggle to last beyond a few hours, and adding Augmented Reality displays only accelerates power drain.
- Processing and power: Much of the computing still relies on smartphones, limiting responsiveness.
- Apps and memory: Native apps are still in their infancy, with many smartphones lacking the bandwidth to support richer, more immersive experiences without hardware upgrades.
Even with these constraints, smart glasses are rapidly emerging as the next everyday computing platform. As we stand at this inflection point, the question is no longer whether they will succeed, but which companies will lead how we interact with the world around us.
Meta’s approach to shipping early, iterating publicly, and bending the cost curve stands in contrast to slower, perfection-first rivals. Yet even Apple is shifting gears, reportedly accelerating development of its own AI-powered glasses and pausing work on its next-gen Vision Pro headset to prioritise this shift. First-mover advantage does not guarantee long-term dominance, however.
As hardware becomes increasingly commoditised, the true battleground is software. Competitors like Xiaomi and RayNeo V3 are already matching Ray-Ban Meta’s core functions, signalling that differentiation will hinge on AI capabilities, ecosystem integration and user experience. Google has also unveiled Android XR, a dedicated operating system for smart glasses and headsets, offering contextual AI assistance and seamless integration with its existing services.
The trajectory of smart glasses is following that of smartwatches: initially a tied accessory to your phone, they have since evolved into standalone platforms. If this pattern holds, the most important screen of the next decade may be the one you barely notice – lightweight, voice first and worn on your face.
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Pieran Maru
Pieran Maru is a Fund Manager in the Global Equities team. Pieran joined Liontrust in 2024 from GAM where he covered software and hardware companies in GAM’s Global Equity team.
