Meta Watch back on?
According to several media sites, Meta is dusting off its plans for a smartwatch again. The potential watch has been an on/off project for Meta since 2021, but this latest rumor seems credible. When Meta first, purportedly, considered a smartwatch, the device had little to differentiate itself from the crow. Yes, Meta was considering adding a camera (or two), with the aim of supporting life-streaming and other Facebook needs, but this seemed like a stretch. Fast forward four years, and Meta has a different agenda, which is to expand the reach of Meta AI to a broader audience. As such, a watch complements the company’s focus on other wearables, such as the smart glasses. This is, of course, just a media-infused rumor at this point. All eyes will be on the upcoming Meta Connect event on September 17 to see if there is any official word on the new hardware.
The Circana Take:
- Meta needs to expand the reach of Meta AI beyond smart glasses if the company wants to be a contender for the center of a consumer’s ecosystem. The watch helps (potentially) reach a far broader audience (40% of US adults own a smartwatch, compared to 6% owning smart glasses).
- Meta needs speakers. To truly have a shot at being the central AI a consumer uses, Meta AI needs to be on as many devices as possible and, particularly, on home speakers so the AI becomes a household resource.
- While Meta does not have a broad hardware base at this point, the potential strength of Meta is its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp base. WhatsApp, in particular, is a huge point of leverage for Meta: particularly outside of the US, Meta is the biggest messaging platform and is poorly supported on many smartwatches today.
Brilliant Smart Glasses?
Expect the smart glasses market to see a flurry of activity over the next 12 to 24 months as more companies look to take a dominant position in this nascent market. Cue Brilliant Labs, which has just launched its second-gen smart glasses, called Halo. The glasses include a camera, microphone, speakers and an OLED display. And, of course, it all revolves around Brilliant’s AI agent, called Noa.
The Circana Take:
- Priced at $299, the Halo glasses are certainly in the sweet spot for consumers interested in this device category. And the company intends to release a limited number of devices, presumably with the aim for driving up the near-term demand.
- Did anyone notice the first iteration glasses? Probably not, which highlights the challenge for companies such as Brilliant Labs. The current smart glasses space is dominated by a small handful of brands, such as Meta (of course), TCL and XREAL, before descending into the long tail of lesser-known brands.
Tag, you are it
Skechers just launched a new line of children’s shoes that can fit an AirTag into the heel. The range of shoes – called Find My Skechers – are aimed at children from one to ten years old. Or more accurately, the shoes are aimed at the parents of said kids.
The Circana Take:
- So many questions, but at the very tip of the question iceberg: is there a line in the sand between a parent and child when it comes to tracking and privacy? What parent truly needs a tracker for a one-year-old – surely the baby is never out of sight (one would hope)? At the other end of the scale, what ten-year-old doesn’t already have a smartphone that a) can be used as a tracker and b) will alert the kid that they are being tracked?