CALIFORNIA: Meta Platforms has launched two new prescription Ray-Ban smart glasses, priced from $499, taking its most successful hardware product into the vast and largely untapped market of people who actually need glasses to see.
Billions of potential customers. And until now, largely ignored.
The two new models, the Ray-Ban Meta Blayzer Optics and the Ray-Ban Meta Scriber Optics, are available for pre-order in the United States and will hit optical retailers in the US and select international markets on April 14th. Designed with overextension hinges, interchangeable nose pads and optician-adjustable temple tips, the glasses are built to adapt to individual face shapes — a nod to the practical demands of prescription eyewear users. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg had flagged the opportunity in January, noting that “billions of people wear glasses or contacts for vision correction.”
The timing is sharp. Global smart glasses shipments reached 9.6m units last year, with Meta commanding a dominant 76.1 per cent of that market, according to International Data Corporation research director Ramon Llamas. Shipments are expected to climb to 13.4m units in 2026.
The new prescription models sit below Meta’s existing Ray-Ban Display glasses, launched last year at $799, which feature a built-in display allowing users to read messages, follow navigation and interact with AI services without reaching for a phone. That model can also be ordered with prescription lenses for an additional $200, though its global rollout was delayed earlier this year owing to supply shortages and strong demand.
Meta develops its AI glasses in partnership with EssilorLuxottica, which owns the Ray-Ban brand. The company has pledged to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in its broader pursuit of what it calls “personal superintelligence,” with smart glasses a central piece of that vision.
Rivals are circling. Snap has set up an independent subsidiary for its augmented reality smart glasses and is preparing a consumer launch, while Google has teamed up with Warby Parker to develop its own AI eyewear.
Meta’s shares rose nearly 4 per cent in morning trading on the news, though they remain down around 19 per cent so far this year.
In a crowded and often overhyped AI gadget market, smart glasses are one of the few things that have actually sold. Meta is betting that adding prescription lenses will turn a hit into a habit.