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Meta, a Completely Trustworthy Company, Leaks That Demand for Ray-Ban Meta Glasses Is Surging
Daniele Lepido and Antonio Vanuzzo, reporting for Bloomberg (paywalled, alas):
Meta Platforms Inc. and EssilorLuxottica SA are discussing potentially doubling production capacity for AI-powered smart glasses by the end of this year, in a bid to capture growing demand and head off rivals, according to people familiar with the matter.
With sales of Ray-Ban Meta frames taking hold, Facebook-owner Meta has suggested increasing annual capacity to 20 million units or more by the end of 2026, said the people, asking not to be named because the deliberations are private.
20 million units is a real number. But building the capacity for 20 million units isn’t the same as selling 20 million units, and, to my knowledge, actual sales of Meta Glasses are only Bezos Numbers. And for historical context, 20 million units annually would put Meta Glasses somewhere between the second and third years of iPhone sales. If they’re really on pace for 20 million sales per year that’s a real thing. But in 2009 I was seeing a lot of iPhones out and about in the world. I’ve only noticed one guy wearing Meta Ray-Bans in the last few months. That’s personal anecdata, for sure, and it’s possible I’m walking past more people wearing these than I realize because they’re supposed to look like regular Ray-Bans. I don’t think they’re on anything even close to the astounding growth pattern of the early iPhone, but Meta is trying hard to create the perception that they are, and that they’re locking in a first-mover advantage.
And again, leaking that they’re “discussing potentially doubling production capacity” is as different from actually selling 20 million annual units as “going all in” on the metaverse is from laying off another thousand-plus employees from the metaverse division three years later.