Salvador Rodriguez and Joanna Stern:
The Ray-Ban smart glasses launched by Meta Platforms almost two years ago have struggled to catch on with owners, many of whom appear to be using the devices infrequently, according to internal company data.
Less than 10% of the Ray-Ban Stories purchased since the product’s launch in September 2021 are used actively by purchasers, according to a company document from February reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Meta sold a total of 300,000 of the wearable devices through February, but the company only had about 27,000 monthly active users.
On one hand, I’m surprised Meta even sold 300k of these. On the other, I’m absolutely unsurprised that fewer than 30k are actually in use. I honestly don’t understand why anyone would buy this product. The cheapest version is $300 and for that you get:
The device, an important part of Meta’s hardware strategy, allows users to take photos and listen to music with the frames of their glasses, among other features. It has experienced a 13% return rate, according to the document.
Or I should say, you’re supposed to get:
Among the top drivers of poor user experience were issues with connectivity, problems with some of the hardware features including battery life, inability for users to import media from the devices, issues with the audio on the product and problems with voice commands for the smart glasses, according to the document.
There are regular problems with literally every selling point. Well, I suppose the sunglasses themselves work? Though maybe I shouldn’t assume that. Regardless, that’s a hefty price to pay for the luxury of wearing a battery around your head.
The kicker is that Meta is gearing up to release a new version. Here’s a prediction: this model also won’t be widely adopted or used.
But Meta executives see the Stories device as a predecessor to augmented-reality glasses, which it hopes to release in the coming years. Apple recently showcased its Vision Pro AR headset at an event in June. Zuckerberg and other company leaders have said Meta’s work in this arena is essential to becoming a dominant player in what could be the next major computing platform to emerge.
Sure, but again, what’s the point of releasing something that doesn’t perform or sell well? To prove you can ship?¹ Do that work in private. Don’t make the public guinea pigs for this weird in-between product development. Obviously everyone from Meta to Apple wants the form factor of such wearables to be glasses.² And they’ll get there, eventually. But we’re still years away from that reality. For proof, look no further than the Vision Pro. Which sounds great, but looks — well, like a VR/AR headset.³ Not like Ray Bans. Because they wouldn’t be able to squeeze anything useful into something the size of Ray Bans today. Maybe in 2033. Maybe.
¹ Still waiting on that VP of Common Sense over there…
² Snap, an even earlier mover here, always seemed to take a more “toy-like” approach to the device. Which seemed to work out of the gate, with massive buzz and demand. But then they still ultimately have flopped because the functionality just isn’t there. Google, of course, took the opposite approach with Google Glass. And that didn’t work from the gate to the very end.
³ And even Apple could have cleaned up their messaging about what this first version of the device actually is, and who it’s for.
