EssilorLuxottica’s revenue hits record highs as AI-powered Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses soar in demand, turning novelty into necessity.
Background: EssilorLuxottica is the French-Italian eyewear giant behind Ray-Ban, Oakley, Persol, Oliver Peoples, and Vogue Eyewear. Beyond the designer labels, it also produces lenses for over a billion people globally every year.
What happened: In the September quarter, EssilorLuxottica posted its best quarterly result ever: revenue jumped 11.7% year-on-year to €6.9 billion. The major driver? A 12% surge in North American sales, after soaring demand for its AI-driven Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
What else: The success has EssilorLuxottica fast-tracking production plans for 10 million units of the wearable tech. Few saw this coming... but it turns out, the smart specs trend might actually have legs.
What's the key learning?
💡Every breakthrough product hits a tipping point - that moment when it shifts from a cool novelty to a need-to-have.
💡Google Glass failed to reach that point back in 2013, with a $1,500 price tag, clunky design, and major privacy concerns. This moonshot project cost Google $895 million USD before being shut down in 2015.
💡But when tech evolves from being experimental to genuinely useful, like hands-free messaging or live translation, it crosses into must-have territory. And Meta and Ray-Ban are betting their smart glasses are next in line.
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