Smart Glass for What?
In anticipation of FB/Ray-Ban’s announcement on their upcoming smart glasses tomorrow, let’s take a look back at what’s come before.
Google Glass: 2012/2013
After being teased and officially unveiled in 2012, Google Glass became an overnight sensation that everyone lusted over. This was the next iPhone moment that will change our lives forever. Its main marketed functionalities were:
- Notifications
- Calendar
- Music
- Weather & time
- Text & phone
- Ecommerce
- Directions & live traffic alerts
- AI assistant
- Camera
- Etc.
Yup quite a long list, but basically, it’s a wearable smartphone. But instead of taking you out of the moment, it enhances and augments it. It was US$1,500 to be an alpha tester of the future. And hell yes we went wild for it.
It was named one of the Best Inventions of the Year by Times Magazine, and even made an appearance on the runway during NYFW. Multiple deep dives and dissect videos from mainstream press and blogs built up the hype even more.
But when early adopters and reviewers finally got their hands on a pair, they quickly realized what an alpha product meant. It was not ready.
What went wrong?
- Overpromised, underdelivered — the original idea was to learn and build in public. Release it to the world wild, and iterate at a ferocious pace with user feedback. Along the way, the hype and promise of the splashy events were never going to be met by an alpha product
- No clear problem it was solving for — most of the functionalities at release could also be performed on a smartphone. A better way to record our lives spontaneously is a good idea that could be a killer use case. But Google Glass was buggy, slow, and had a short battery life. Not something one could wear at all times, not to mention…
- Sci-Fi design instead of consumer fashion — utility isn’t everything, we spend thousands on luxury items for the way they make us feel. Well, Google Glass objectively was not a gorgeous device, and it also failed to connect on a human level. For something as personable as someone’s face, most people simply did not want to be caught wearing something out of robocop
- Privacy and surveillance concerns — Glass was outfitted with a camera that could record at any time (with few ways to indicate to others that it was)
The miscommunication was the biggest factor that led to its downfall and cancellation. The concept videos and the larger-than-life events raised stakes significantly for a product that desperately needed to be user tested. Google Glass did inspire others to also build for this vision, though the early vintages have not produced any viable products. Fortunately, other large tech companies continued to invest and solve many of the above concerns.
Snap Spectacles: 2016-Present
Evan Spiegel is one of the best consumer product builders of all time. So when Snap announced their smart glasses product Spectacles (a few months before their IPO, I might add), everyone paid attention.
The marketing done was appealing and approachable. Fun new toy to take short videos at $130 a pop, and you could buy them from these cool vending machines?!
Spectacles never made promises about being the next big thing, though it certainly is providing valuable lessons to Snap so they could eventually build it. Snap has since continued to release new versions with Spectacles 2 (2018) and Spectacles 3 (2019). The fourth-gen is its most ambitious yet, with built-in AR displays.
Snap doesn’t believe smartphones are going away any time soon. They do think smart glasses will provide valuable lessons that will eventually lead to hands-free computing around the world.
Facebook/Ray-Ban’s Device: Present
Early teaser videos from Zuckerberg and Bosworth seem to show point-of-view video clips captured in the moment. Not much else has been shared other than it will “let you do some pretty neat things.”
I believe it will be a subsidized product with approachable price points that will allow Facebook to continue to experiment and learn. But the stakes and expectations will be much higher given the iconic Ray-Ban partnership, and how much progress Oculus has made with the Quest. Let’s see what gets announced!
