E132 - Meta goes Store Brand: Introducing Meta Glasses

The strategy to go with an already well-established brand has been
contested by its own creator: Meta introduced Meta Ray-Ban glasses
three years ago and created a blueprint which was supposed to
explain why suddenly a lot of normal, non-XR people were buying AI
glasses. Now, Meta has announced Meta Glasses; their own "store
brand," cheaper but supposedly as good as the branded version,
which challenges that blueprint. Thomas Bedenk and I, as well as
many of you out there, have been asking why Meta is doing that.
Sure, cheaper might always be better for wider adoption. Removing a
designer glasses brand can make a product cheaper. But will it also
remove the appeal? Will people wear glasses with a Meta logo on
them? Was Meta forced to go cheaper because the trajectory already
showed signs of slowing down? And what role does EssilorLuxottica
play in this? The long-time partner, which is 3% owned by Meta and
has a 10-year deal signed up to 2034, is not only profiting hugely
from that cooperation. It is also in a situation where it could put
pressure on its partner. The Italian-French corporation
EssilorLuxottica might even be concerned about its own brand
integrity regarding what Meta is doing concerning privacy and AI.
Maybe EssilorLuxottica halted further brand cooperation without
retracting access to its production facilities, we speculate. In
this episode, we are analyzing Meta's newest attempt in the smart
glasses industry it created, and we share a clear position on
whether you should buy these now-cheapest, but still great-looking,
smart glasses.