Glasses Instead of Smartphones: Why Mark Zuckerberg Is Betting Everything Again

Glasses instead of smartphones: why Mark Zuckerberg is betting all his money again

Remember how a couple of years ago we were being convinced that we would hold work meetings as cartoon avatars in the airless metaverse? Mark Zuckerberg remembers this better than anyone, considering how many billions of shareholder dollars burned in that ambitious bonfire. Today the rhetoric has changed. The head of Meta no longer calls us into fully virtual worlds; he wants to augment the world in which we already exist. His new prophecy sounds peremptory: a future without smart glasses is practically impossible to imagine. And although Mark's forecasts should be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism, this time behind his words stands not just fantasy, but hard market logic.

Let's acknowledge the obvious: Meta is in a vulnerable position. It's a giant with no home of its own. Apple and Google control the operating systems where Zuckerberg's applications live, and one stroke of a pen in Cupertino could deprive the company of billions in ad revenue, as already happened with iOS privacy rules. Smart glasses for Zuckerberg are not just a stylish accessory; they're an attempt to create its own computing platform. If Meta manages to convince us to put them on our faces, it will finally become master of its position, escaping the dictatorship of app stores.

Technologically, this transition looks more logical than the shift to VR. The Orion prototype, which the company recently unveiled, demonstrates that Meta has learned to pack serious computing power and complex lenses into a form factor that doesn't frighten those around you. Unlike bulky headsets, glasses don't isolate the user. They allow you to see notifications, translate a restaurant menu in real time, or get tips from an AI assistant while looking at the world with your own eyes. It is precisely the integration with modern language models that gives this project a chance at life that Google Glass didn't have ten years ago.

However, skepticism hasn't gone anywhere. Zuckerberg has been wrong on timing more than once before. He often takes wishful thinking for reality, assuming technologies are ready for the mass market before they actually are. The "glass hole" problem—people wearing cameras on their faces and making those around them uncomfortable—hasn't disappeared. Social acceptance of such gadgets remains questionable, even if their design becomes flawless. Moreover, battery life and device overheating remain physical barriers that are hard to overcome with marketing slogans.

Nevertheless, the industry is watching Meta's every move carefully. If Apple Vision Pro is an attempt to bring the computer to your face, then Zuckerberg's glasses are an attempt to make reality itself interactive. This is a struggle for our attention at the most fundamental level. We've already gotten used to looking at screens every five minutes. Zuckerberg simply wants to eliminate the unnecessary step of moving your hand to your pocket. It's ambitious, it's risky, and it's damned expensive. But after the metaverse failure, he seems to have simply no other path but to make us look at the world through his lenses.

Bottom line: Glasses are Zuckerberg's last chance to build his own independent ecosystem. Will Orion become the next iPhone or repeat the fate of the Segway?