Are you finally ready to hang a computer screen on your face?
Fifteen years ago, that would have seemed like a silly question. Then came the much-hyped and much-derided Google Glass in 2012, and frankly, it still seemed a silly question.
Now, though, it’s a choice consumers are beginning to make. Tiny displays, shrinking processors, advanced battery designs, and wireless communications are coming together in a new generation of smart glasses that display information that’s actually useful right in front of you. But the big question remains: Just why would you want to do that?
Some tech companies are betting that today’s smart glasses will be the perfect interface for delivering AI-supported information and other notifications. The other possibility is that smart glasses will replace bulky computer screens, acting instead as a private and portable monitor. But the companies pursuing these two approaches don’t yet know which choice consumers will make or what applications they really want.
Smart-glasses skeptics will point to the fate of Google Glass, which was introduced in 2012 and quickly became a prime example of a pricey technology in search of practical applications. It had little to offer consumers, aside from being an aspirational product that was ostentatiously visible to others. (Some rude users were even derided as “glass-holes.”) While Glass was a success in specialized applications such as surgery and manufacturing until 2023—at least for those organizations that could afford to invest around a thousand dollars per pair—it lacked any compelling application for the average consumer.
Smart-glasses technology may have improved since then, but the devices are still chasing a solid use case. From the tech behemoths to little brands you’ve never heard of, the hardware once again is out over its skis, searching for the right application.
During a Meta earnings call in January, Mark Zuckerberg declared that 2025 “will be a defining year that determines if we’re on a path toward many hundreds of millions and eventually billions” of AI glasses. Part of that determination comes down to a choice of priorities: Should a head-worn display replicate the computer screens that we currently use, or should they work more like a smartwatch, which displays only limited amounts of information at a time?
Head-worn displays fall into two broad categories: those intended for virtual reality (VR) and those suited for augmented reality (AR). VR’s more-immersive approach found some early success in the consumer market, such as the Meta Quest 2 (originally released as the Oculus Quest 2 in 2020), which reportedly sold more than 20 million units before it was discontinued. According to the market research firm Counterpoint, however, the global market for VR devices fell by 12 percent year over year in 2024—the third year of decline in a row—because of hardware limitations and a lack of compelling use cases. As a mass consumer product, VR devices are probably past their moment.
In contrast, AR devices allow the wearer to stay engaged with their surroundings as additional information is overlaid in the field of view. In earlier generations of smart glasses, this information added context to the scene, such as travel directions or performance data for athletes. Now, with advances in generative AI, AR can answer questions and translate speech and text in real time.
Many analysts agree that AI-enhanced smart glasses are a market on the verge of massive growth. Louis Rosenberg, CEO and chief scientist with Unanimous AI, has been involved in AR technology from its start, more than 30 years ago. “AI-powered smart glasses are the first mainstream XR [extended reality] devices that are profoundly useful and will achieve rapid adoption,” Rosenberg told IEEE Spectrum. “This, in turn, will accelerate the adoption of immersive versions to follow. In fact, I believe that within five years, immersive AI-powered glasses will replace the smartphone as the primary mobile device in our digital lives.”
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