But glasses giant EssilorLuxottica, which produces those glasses for Meta, has now publicly revealed they’ve sold 2 million pairs of Meta Ray-Bans since their October 2023 debut, and that it’s aiming to produce 10 million Meta glasses each year by the end of 2026.
“A pair of eyeglasses will be the main digital platform addressing our daily needs,” EssilorLuxottica CEO and chairman Francesco Milleri said on the company’s FY2024 financial results call, via UploadVR.
Milleri says his company is “planning for the long term with Meta” and thinking about Meta’s Ray-Bans as a “shared platform” that’s “ready to embark on third-party brands,” not just a single product. Bloomberg reported last month that Meta is planning Oakley-branded glasses too. (Oakley is one of EssilorLuxottica’s many other brands of glasses.)
“In the light of such evolution, and in line with our ambitious plan, we are currently expanding our production capacity for Ray-Ban Meta, set to reach 10 million annual unit by the end of next year,” Milleri said on the call. In September, the two companies announced a long-term partnership through at least 2030.
Milleri suggested that all of Meta’s glasses would be “supported by AI,” hinted that subscription services are coming as well, and said EssilorLuxottica is looking forward to Meta’s multimodal AI features expanding worldwide.
To become “the main digital platform addressing our daily needs,” Meta and EssilorLuxottica would need to grow glasses by two orders of magnitude; Samsung and Apple each sell over 200 million phones per year. Ten million per year would barely scratch that surface.
Meta is reportedly working on a pair of glasses with a display for later in 2025; my colleague Alex Heath has written it will ship alongside a neural wristband you can use to control it.