Through the Looking Glass – Facebook’s New Smart Glasses

By Reilin Lyu

In May of 2014, Google released its cutting-edge smart glasses– capable of recording audio and video from the user’s perspective, as well as connecting to the internet – in the form of what we now know as a dismal marketing failure: Google Glass.

This year, Facebook announced that they were partnering up with eyewear company Ray-Ban to attempt that at which Google failed – not designing the technology itself, but getting it to sell.

One of Google Glass’s critical failures was its ambiguous marketing. What need was it intended to satisfy? How would it improve users’ everyday lives? Consumers couldn’t quite figure out what the product was to be used for, and thus, felt no great need to invest in it. Another contentious issue with Google Glass is the ethics of a portable, easily-hidden video recording device. There are still debates over whether or not smart glasses are an infringement on individuals’ privacy – an issue that Facebook needs to resolve for its product to sell. And given Facebook’s less-than-spotless track record of mishandling users’ personal data, prospects are not optimistic.

However, some say that Facebook’s marketing is set up to succeed, more so than Google’s was. A large part of this prospect is Facebook’s partnership with Ray-Ban, which is a well-known company in the eyewear market, specifically their use of the latter’s Wayfarer model. The reasoning goes that, if people see Facebook working on smart glasses with a well-known company and using a trusted model of eyewear, they would be more likely to purchase it. Nonetheless, the privacy debate is still a contentious ethical issue that continues to spark disagreement, while Facebook continues its ambitious plan to launch their new smart glasses, which were released at the beginning of September this year. Since they are so new, the future of this sci-fi-like technology is uncertain. Will it turn out as a pathetic copy of Google Glass? Or will it become the next groundbreaking piece of technology on par with the iPhone? Only time will tell.