Smartglasses are an inevitability, a new consumer-tech arms race for the last and best real estate on our bodies, writes Christopher @Mims. But what—and more important, who—are they for?

$META is announcing a new set of smartglasses at $299. It won't have a screen, but will include a camera and personal speakers with Meta AI. A great launch moment and a very accessible price point for people to try. If the AI is good enough, people will get hooked on it.

The year is 2030. $META is the biggest company in the world. Muse is the most used consumer agent. Their models are on par with best-in-class (if not better) & they’re also cheaper. Their smartglasses are selling out left & right as the company leans into its fortress ecosystem. Suddenly, the company with the best agents also has the best consumer hardware. Blue text bubbles suddenly feel meaningless. Their core apps business is still somehow steadily growing daily users. Several other products we can’t even fathom debuted, scaled & effectively monetized. Margins explode higher as fixed cost leverage kicks into high gear, top-line compounding continues, CapEx growth turns negative & AI hardware pricing power greatly fades. Alexandr Wang is posting funny things in X (still not Threads). Zuck is having a barbecue. Life is good.

WATCH: Tech giants such as Meta and OpenAI are racing to build AI devices that can see and hear the world. But a growing privacy backlash, especially over Meta's Ray-Ban smartglasses, is forcing companies to rethink cameras and data handling before consumers buy in

Tech giants such as Meta and OpenAI are racing to build AI devices that can see and hear the world. But a growing privacy backlash, especially over Meta's Ray-Ban smartglasses, is forcing companies to rethink cameras and data handling before consumers buy in