Smart glasses could become the definitive hardware design of the AI era - if consumers buy in to the idea
Meta dominates the smart-glasses market, commanding an 84% share.
You can find them at Milan Fashion Week, on the French Riviera and courtside at NBA games. Smart glasses have burst onto the scene in some high-profile places - but they're still a rare sight on the faces of regular people.
Big Tech players like Meta Platforms (META), Google $(GOOGL)$ $(GOOG)$, Snap (SNAP) and Apple $(AAPL)$ are betting that cutting-edge eyewear will become the groundbreaking hardware design of the artificial-intelligence revolution. Earlier this week, Meta announced its first independently branded line of smart glasses - in collaboration with Kylie Jenner - that feature a camera, audio and Meta's latest Muse Spark AI model. The week before, Snap unveiled Specs, its augmented-reality glasses, which boast a computer housed inside a pair of chunky black frames.
The value proposition of smart glasses remains unclear, according to some experts. "I think we're still trying to figure out what the use case is," said Sara Araghi, senior vice president and portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton. "Is it going to have an AI assistant attached to it, or is it just to take pictures and answer calls?"
And will these capabilities be more accessible on a pair of glasses than the device that everyone already has in their pocket?
Investors will also be curious to see what types of monetization glasses will bring beyond the sale of the hardware itself.
Domination of the next big consumer-tech hardware design promises to be lucrative. Just look at Apple's hardware empire: The iPhone maker is reported to be releasing its own competitor to Meta's Ray-Ban glasses in late 2027. And over a decade after the demise of the ill-fated Google Glass, Alphabet is trying its hand at smart glasses again with the May launch of its Intelligent Eyewear.
Meta has emerged as the front-runner in this crowded field, building early momentum through partnerships with Ray-Ban and Oakley and shipping over 7 million units in 2025, according to Meta's eyewear partner Essilor Luxottica.
But at the end of the day, these companies still need to answer a crucial question, according to Araghi: "What are you selling and how are you ultimately going to monetize this?"
For now, Big Tech is courting customers by selling an idea of the future.
"No one really wants Meta glasses, so you have to try to convince them that this is cool," Max Weinbach, an analyst at Creative Strategies, told MarketWatch. Big Tech companies are doing this by partnering with "brands that are a little bit more fashionable," he said.
Meta has tapped Kylie Jenner as a co-designer for its glasses, while Snap is reportedly in discussions with Robert Downey Jr. for a $100 million Specs ambassador campaign. Both companies are promoting their glasses at high-profile events at the Cannes film festival. In February, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made an appearance at Prada's Fall/Winter 2026 runway show in Milan in what some speculated to be a nod to Essilor Luxottica (FR:EL), which holds the eyewear licensing rights for the Prada, Ray-Ban and Oakley brands.
Google appears to be following a similar playbook: Its Intelligent Eyewear line partners with Samsung (KR:005930) as well as Warby Parker (WRBY) and Korean luxury eyewear brand Gentle Monster.
Underneath the marketing buzz, smart glasses are far from being a "solved form factor," Weinbach said, referring to hardware design. There are still a lot of kinks that need to be worked out.
Within the market for AI-powered eyewear, two camps have emerged: Simple screen-free glasses versus more sci-fi augmented-reality displays. The former category generally receives more positive feedback than the latter and is gaining some traction among early adopters, according to Weinbach. "The premium over normal glasses isn't that much," he said. "A lot of people enjoy the music from it. You don't have to have earbuds in, and you still get the sunglasses." Meta's new glasses start at $299.
On the other hand, heavier augmented-reality glasses like Specs have yet to capture any real popularity among consumers. These types of eyewear are a bet on a post-smartphone future, according to Weinbach.
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Smart glasses have been slowly growing in usage, but the category overall faces several barriers to mainstream adoption, said Flora Tang, principal analyst at Counterpoint Research. Those include battery life, AI reliability, comfort and privacy concerns.
To gain mainstream adoption, smart glasses will need to meaningfully "enhance the usefulness of AI in daily scenarios" and "strengthen ecosystem connectivity," Tang told MarketWatch over email. While there is an opportunity for smart glasses to become a defining wearable of the AI era, she doesn't believe they'll replace smartphones. Smart glasses might also have difficulty reaching the popularity of other wearables such as smart watches due to geographic and cultural differences, Tang added.
Additionally, other Big Tech companies will face an uphill battle to get a foothold in the nascent market for smart glasses after Meta's head start. According to Counterpoint Research, Meta commanded 84% of global market share for smart glasses in the first quarter of 2026.
-Christine Ji
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 27, 2026 08:30 ET (12:30 GMT)
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