I think they’ll become mainstream eventually. It seems obvious to me that they’d be useful and eventually a far superior experience to a smart phone. If and when they start to gain steam, there will be a backlash of some degree that will likely die out because the vast majority of people have no concern for digital privacy. I think the google glass backlash was a result of them looking weird and the personalities of the people willing to drop $1000+ to get one and wear it around.

I think the real question is what kind of world will bring them into mainstream. With surveillance on the rise, I imagine the most powerful people would actually like everyone to have cameras on their faces.

I think the new meta glasses will be decently popular relative to the rest of the MR market, but will ultimately be held back by the tech industry’s insistence on AI. I don’t think any new technology will become mainstream so long as AI is a headline feature, it’s too inconsistent as a feature and wildly unprofitable as a technology. Once the AI bubble pops and the economic consequences are sorted out, that’s when I think smart glasses will get big.

So I worry if we’ll live in 1984-esque surveillance hell by then or if somehow things will turn around. Either way I think smart glasses are coming and they’ll be common soon.