Facebook had started off as a software company, but it now seems to directing how computing hardware will look in the coming decades.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that he expects smart glasses to become the next major computing platform. Zuckerberg’s comments came after Meta had launched its Orion smart glasses, which are transparent, allowing people to see the world around them, but also have AR capabilities. But while the glasses are still a protype, Zuckerberg seems to believe that big things are in store for the form factor.
“I think glasses are going to be the next major computing platform,” he said in an interview. “But each new platform doesn’t tend to just replace the old one. You probably have this experience often where you’re sitting at your desk and you have your computer there, yet you still pull out your phone to do things,” he continued.
“So at some point in the last ten years, mobile really became the primary computing platform. We didn’t get rid of our computers. It’s just that even when you have it, you still do more things on your phone,” Zuckerberg said.
“So what I think is going to happen with glasses is we’re going to get to this point, probably sometime in the 2030s, where you have your phone with you, but it’s going to stay in your pocket more because you’re just going to be doing more and more things on your glasses that maybe today you would do on your phone,” Zuckerberg predicted.
“You’ll reach a point where, just like with your computer, there are probably some things that could be done in a richer way or better in some way on your phone, but the glasses will be your main computing platform, and that will be kind of your default go to thing. And then maybe over time, you get to this point where people just don’t bring their phone with them everywhere,” he said.
Now Zuckerberg is obviously an interested party in this prediction — Meta has been pushing hard on its smart glasses project, having recently released a pair of smart glasses in association with Ray Ban that allow users to record video, take photos and converse with AI through a built-in microphone and speakers. Last week, Meta had unveiled a prototype of its Orion smart glasses that seems to have impressed early users. The glasses come with a wristband which can detect finger motions, making it easy to navigate the Augmented Reality world within the glasses. And while these are still early days, Zuckerberg believes that in the not too distant future, glasses such as these will replace the mobile phone as the primary computing device.