Hello everyone. It’s good to be back. It looks like the news flow was relatively quiet. This will afford us time to catch up on a few items. For today’s update, we take a closer look at the WSJ’s reporting regarding Meta’s Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses. The discussion includes a broader overview of why the devices have such a poor retention problem with users.

Today’s email will focus on an update regarding the smart glasses space.

Meta’s Ray-Ban Stories Sales Figures Leak

In an article published on August 3rd, here’s the WSJ:

“The Ray-Ban smart glasses launched by Meta Platforms almost two years ago have struggled to catch on with owners, many of whom appear to be using the devices infrequently, according to internal company data.

Less than 10% of the Ray-Ban Stories purchased since the product’s launch in September 2021 are used actively by purchasers, according to a company document from February reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Meta sold a total of 300,000 of the wearable devices through February, but the company only had about 27,000 monthly active users.

The device, an important part of Meta’s hardware strategy, allows users to take photos and listen to music with the frames of their glasses, among other features. It has experienced a 13% return rate, according to the document.

Among the top drivers of poor user experience were issues with connectivity, problems with some of the hardware features including battery life, inability for users to import media from the devices, issues with the audio on the product and problems with voice commands for the smart glasses, according to the document.”

Meta released Ray-Ban Stories in September 2021 as the world was still engulfed in the pandemic. Travel and work patterns were disrupted while leisure activities hadn’t returned to normal. After an initial burst of media exposure, the buzz surrounding Stories quickly evaporated. There was good reason to assume the product wasn’t selling well.

We now have what appears to be our answer. With a $299 starting price, Meta sold 300,000 pairs of Stories in 18 months or so. That isn’t good. We aren’t talking about a HW start-up trying to get in front of consumers.

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