Meta may not be in a New Coke territory, but its Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses campaign may be knocking on the door.
That after news only 10% of the high-end glasses, which can take photos and download music, are actually being used by customers, according to data released by The Wall Street Journal.
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Released in September 2021, Ray-Ban Stories have been trending downward ever since.
Meta sold approximately 300,000 glasses since the product launch through February, 2023, but has only maintained 27,000 active monthly users, The Journal Reports. Furthermore, Meta's Ray-Ban glasses are churning a much higher-than-average 13% return rate.
At $299 per pair, Meta’s Ray Ban Stories generally get high marks on design, audio, and camera quality, and on easy pairing capabilities. On the downside, the smart glasses are regularly panned on review sites for low battery life, an inability for wearers to import media from the glasses, and sketchy zoom-in capabilities.
“Safe to say this was a bust just like the Google smart glasses,” says one X user.
“Overrated and overpriced,” adds another.
The sour reviews and the technical problems seem to be tamping down product sales. For instance, Meta expected to sell 300,000 Ray-Ban smart glasses in April, 2022, but only sold 120,000.
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Despite, the underwhelming response to Ray-Ban Stories, Meta is forging ahead with a second-generation version of the glasses, with a rollout scheduled for any time between the 2023 holiday season and early 2024.
Augmented reality features, which Meta and other developers have been trying to commercialize for years, reportedly won’t be in the picture with the new version of Ray-Ban Stories.
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