On September 17, 2025, Meta, an American company, officially launched its first consumer-oriented Ray-Ban Display smart glasses at its annual developer conference held on the 17th local time. This new product not only comes with a built-in display but also enters the mass market for $799, and is regarded as an important milestone in the field of artificial intelligence glasses.
Highlights of the press conference: Smart glasses make their debut
At this conference, the smart glasses jointly launched by Meta and Ray-Ban became the focus of the entire event. Unlike the previous smart glasses that emphasized voice interaction and appearance design, the Ray-Ban Display version is equipped with a high-resolution micro display screen for the first time, supporting core functions such as map navigation, real-time captions and translation, photography, and video calls. Even more futuristic is that the glasses are equipped with a “Neural Wristband”, allowing users to control the screen simply through subtle hand movements without the need for traditional touch operations.
Meta said that the glasses will first be available in some retail stores in the United States starting from September 30 and plans to further expand to international markets such as Canada and France in early 2026. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on the spot, “AI glasses will become the next major computing platform and may completely replace smartphones in the future.”
Market background: The demand for AI glasses has soared
According to data from market research institutions, in the first half of 2025, global sales of smart glasses more than doubled year-on-year, with Meta’s Ray-Ban series dominating the shipment volume. This latest trend indicates that smart glasses are gradually moving from niche technological products to the mass consumer market. Industry experts point out that with breakthroughs in display technology, AI algorithms, and wearable interaction methods, smart glasses are entering a period of explosive growth.
Smart glasses are not only regarded as the strategic focus of technology companies’ layout, but also have become a hot topic of concern in the capital market. Analysts believe that Meta’s pricing strategy of $799 this time aims to bridge the gap between consumer users and high-end smart glasses, thereby accelerating market penetration.
Technology and challenges: Innovation and doubt coexist
The most significant technical highlight of the Ray-Ban Display smart glasses lies in its integration of real-time AI translation and subtitle functions, as well as AI-based scene recognition and navigation capabilities. This means that users can obtain immediate assistance in cross-language communication, traveling, or daily office work. However, despite its outstanding features, this product also faces some practical challenges.
The first issue is battery life and endurance. At present, smart glasses are restricted by their size and weight, making it difficult for them to be equipped with large-capacity batteries, which leads to limitations in long-term use. Secondly, privacy protection and data security remain the focus of widespread social concern. With glasses equipped with functions such as shooting and real-time translation, how to prevent personal information from being misused has become a test that Meta must face.
In addition, the cultivation of user habits is also a major obstacle. Smartphones have been deeply integrated into daily life. Whether consumers are willing to replace their phones with glasses still needs time to be verified.
Industry impact and future outlook
Industry insiders generally believe that the Ray-Ban Display glasses launched by Meta this time symbolize that the smart glasses industry has entered a mature competitive stage. Against the backdrop of tech giants like Apple, Google, and Samsung making successive efforts, Meta has seized the initiative by collaborating with Ray-Ban across industries and is expected to form a differentiated advantage in the combination of design aesthetics and functional experience.
Experts predict that in the next three years, smart glasses will develop in the following directions:
- Education and Office Work: Through AI translation, real-time subtitles, and data overlay, it helps with cross-language communication and remote collaboration.
- Travel and Entertainment: Offer immersive navigation experiences and augmented reality entertainment content.
- Healthcare and Industry: It plays a role in scenarios such as remote diagnosis, on-site maintenance, and training.
In the long run, whether smart glasses can truly replace smartphones will depend on the construction of the ecosystem. Only when developers continuously introduce a variety of application scenarios can consumers truly regard glasses as a daily necessity.
Conclusion
Meta released the Ray-Ban Display smart glasses priced at $799 at its 2025 Developer Conference. This not only marks a breakthrough for the company in the wearable device field but also further ignites the competitive spark in the global smart glasses market. Although the future still faces technical, privacy, and popularization challenges, the release of this new product undoubtedly shows the outside world the possibility of AI glasses replacing smartphones. As global technology enterprises continue to increase their investment, the future picture of the smart glasses industry is rapidly moving out of the laboratory and towards the consumer market.
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