Ray-Ban’s association with Facebook had the potential to seduce, but technical problems outweighed the expected success.
The 300,000 units sold in a year and a half of Meta’s first connected glasses, the Ray-Ban Stories, failed to attract the expected clientele. However, Facebook’s parent company is planning to launch a second model, again in partnership with the famous American brand, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Wall Street has managed to obtain an internal Meta. Despite a document that mentions very poor sales figures, accompanied by a very low usage rate. In February 2023, Stories had just 27,000 active users. In other words, less than 10% of buyers continued to wear them.
Since launching in the USA and the UK, Stories have been similar to Snapchat’s Spectacles. They enable users to take photos, record video clips or even make an audio or video call. The idea is to make it possible to capture moments in life without having to take out a smartphone.
This value proposition didn’t appeal to the public. To avoid the same failure as Snapchat, Meta was counting on a partnership with EssilorLuxottica, the European parent company of Ray-Ban. And on a strong argument: its first glasses, available in 20 different styles, resemble the brand’s classic frames.
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