This morning, upstart smart glasses institution Even Realities launched Even Hub, an unfastened app shop and developer level for its G2 statement of show style smart glasses. This could beryllium the first salvo successful a warfare betwixt open- and closed-platform show smart glasses.
On 1 broadside is Meta. The Goliath of the smart glasses marketplace has frankincense acold taken a wholly closed approached to its newish Display glasses: Meta decides what your smart glasses tin do and determines what apps you tin access. The David to Meta's Goliath is Even Realities, a boutique tech institution that conscionable launched a storefront pinch complete 50 apps made by third-party developers, truthful users tin determine for themselves what to instal and what to ignore.
While the marketplace for AR-style smart glasses pinch displays is presently constricted to tech heads and early adopters, if the HUD-style glasses drawback connected (and some companies support their existent strategies) the victor could find really overmuch power users will person complete their augmented futures.
Competing strategies for display-style smart glasses
In position of full marketplace share, Meta and Even Realities aren't successful the aforesaid universe. Meta's marketplace capitalization is astir $1.47 trillion, and its statement of Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses dress up astir 82% of the smart glasses market. According to Prospero, Even Realities is worthy an estimated $10 million—though a spokesperson for Even Realities tells maine their valuation is simply a batch higher, astatine slightest $500 million.
Within the niche of display-integrated glasses, however, Meta and Even Realities are peers: Estimates for 2025-2026 propose that Meta has sold astir 20,000 of its precocious extremity Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses. Prospero's numbers propose Even Realities has moved betwixt 10,000 and 25,000 pairs of its G2 glasses, while the institution itself estimates its G2 income scope into the "hundreds of thousands," the spokesperson said.
The 2 companies are taking very different approaches to trading "glasses pinch a HUD." Meta's Display spectacles are priced astatine $799 and are designed to do everything its celebrated non-display glasses do, pinch the summation of a full-color, precocious value video, and a distinctive, Ray-Ban look. Even Realities' $599 G2 glasses don't person an onboard camera aliases audio, and the mono-color show is housed successful a very discreet framework that nary 1 will fishy is thing but a "normal" brace of specs. They're designed to beryllium fashionable, functional, mundane glasses that tin besides task a representation successful beforehand of your eyes or thief you con bartenders erstwhile you request them to. Here's a review of the past procreation of Even Realities glasses for much info.
The astir important disagreement betwixt these companies mightiness beryllium to beryllium their attack to software. All exertion is connected a continuum betwixt "open" and "closed," and Meta's smart glasses have, truthful far, been acold into the restricted portion of the spectrum. You get a highly curated experience, pinch Meta acting arsenic the arbiter of what is installed connected your look computer, whether you're rocking Display glasses aliases Ray-Ban Metas. You don't download apps, you toggle "experiences" connected and off. You tin take to disable aliases alteration Apple Music, but you can't take to perceive to euphony connected a caller level developed by a 3rd party. You can't delete halfway features you don't want. Even thing arsenic basal arsenic changing the wake-up words for the AI is off-limits; it's "Hey, Meta," aliases it's nothing.
Even Realities attack is semi-open, for illustration Apple's App store. It's not the "anything goes" attack of Linux, but you tin peruse Even Realities' room of approved apps and take whether aliases not you request an in-glasses EPUB Reader, a Chess game, aliases a complaint parameter for your Tesla. Even Realities lets you region moreover halfway features you don't usage connected its glasses too.
Speculating astir Meta's early smart glasses plans
It's worthy noting that Meta isn't fundamentally opposed to third-party development. The company's Meta Horizon Store for the Quest statement of VR headsets is simply a massive, vibrant marketplace pinch everything from high-end games to tiny, janky devices connected offer, and the institution shut down overmuch of its first-party VR development, while pledging to proceed supporting indie devs. So it's possible/probable that Meta is waiting for the hardware to mature earlier opening a much unfastened shop for its glasses, aliases conscionable adding a "Display" conception to the existing Horizon Store.
Open isn't needfully better
While the knee-jerk guidance mightiness beryllium to reason that the prime offered by an unfastened strategy is much desirable than a closed one, that hasn't ever been the lawsuit successful the tech world. Nintendo dominated video games successful the 1980s by maintaining strict value controls complete games released connected its NES, and fewer kids wanted the much "open" competing systems. Adobe's Flash dominated everything the "open web" had to connection successful the early 2000s, only dying erstwhile different comparatively closed system, Apple's iPhone, refused to support it. Speaking of Apple, its iOS devices relationship for 63% of the American smart telephone market, while the nearest competitor, the much unfastened Android, is perpetually second. Time, arsenic they say, will show whether consumers for illustration a curated experience, a modular, unfastened one, aliases moreover want glasses pinch a HUD astatine all.
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