The End of Smartphones Is Nigh: Cheaper Replacements Proliferate
Several leaders of major technology giants have repeatedly predicted the end of the era of smartphone dominance as the primary daily device. Two of these figures are Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
Musk previously stated on his social media account that humans in the future will no’t carry smartphones everywhere, but will instead be directly connected to chips implanted in the brain. He has already introduced this concept through his startup, Neuralink.
In contrast to Musk, Zuckerberg believes that smart glasses will become the replacement for smartphones as the daily device of the future. Many manufacturers have already released smart glasses, such as Apple through Vision Pro, Snap through Specs, and Meta through Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta.
Unfortunately, the adoption of smart glasses has been limited so far due to their relatively high prices. However, it appears Meta is ambitious about bringing access to its smart glasses to a wider market.
As reported by Reuters on Wednesday (24/06/2026), Meta and EssilorLuxottica have just launched affordable AI smart glasses. The device is priced starting from US$299 (approximately Rp5.3 million), significantly cheaper than the Ray-Ban Display, which is priced at US$800 (approximately Rp14.3 million).
Meta has invested billions of US dollars to realise ‘personal intelligence’—a super-advanced gadget aimed at bringing various AI benefits to individual users.
Although developed in conjunction with Luxottica, Meta’s latest affordable smart glasses series is the first to be released without collaboration with established fashion brands such as Ray-Ban and Oakley.
Meta’s affordable smart glasses are available in various colours and shapes, including round frames and thin oval frames, which are the result of a collaboration with Kylie Jenner.
This smart glasses series is also Meta’s first AI glasses launched with Meta AI powered by Muse Spark. For context, Muse Spark is the first model produced by Superintelligence Labs.
Global shipments of smart glasses reached 9.6 million units last year. Meta leads this market with a 76.1% market share, according to research firm IDC.
The announcement of Meta Glasses comes one week after the owner of Snap launched augmented reality (AR) glasses at a high price of US$2,195 (approximately Rp39 million). However, while Snap’s glasses overlay digital content onto the user’s real-world view, Meta’s glasses enable text displays and AI interaction.