Warby Parker Pre-Orders This Week?
Last week Warby Parker released its third quarter results and slipped in that the company’s Intelligent Eyewear collection will be available for pre-order starting November 12. No mention was made regarding the price of the glasses but interested consumers can already sign up to demo the glasses in stores. The timing is no great surprise: Google’s other eyewear partner, Gentle Monster, had previously said the release would be in the Fall and obviously both companies want to try and make the most of the holiday shopping season.
The Circana Take:
- These glasses will be the first real competition that Meta faces in the smart glasses arena. Pricing and brand trust will be key determining factors when it comes to which model is chosen. The other key factor, of course, is to be an early adopter of a given style. With Meta having been so successful with its styles, some consumers may look to Gentle Monster and Warby Parker simply for a different style.
- The big question will be if the Google-partnered brands will help to grow the market, or simply split the existing base of consumers who want smart glasses. With so much push back on camera-based smart glasses, there may not be too many additional consumers prepared to buy these just yet.
- With that in mind, it can be argued that Meta remains one big step ahead, having launched audio-only smart glasses – and combining them with Meta AI for a full experience.
I Hear You
Apple has now launched the new Audio Intelligence features for the latest iteration of its Watch, at least for consumers willing to install a beta build of the OS. The two features are Siri Recap and Siri Rewind, the somewhat controversial features that (sort of) record what is going on around them. I say “sort of” because Apple says there is no access to the raw audio. Rather, they provide a summary of the conversation (Siri Recap) or a more detailed, text based, recap of the past 15 seconds of chat in case you missed something (the digital equivalent of asking someone to repeat what they just said I suppose).
The Circana Take:
- As the smartwatch settles at approximately 40% of adult consumers being active users, all smartwatch vendors are looking for additional features to pull in a wider range of future consumers – especially with increased competition across the board in the realm of wellness.
- But any perceived recording device can become a privacy nightmare (at least from a perception perspective) and Apple will need to tread lightly to stay on the correct side of that red line. With more and more devices around us recording activity (smart glasses being the obvious ones) we are getting closer and closer to a consumer backlash against these recording tools.