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Ray-Ban Meta Glasses Are Now Available In India & Mexico
The Ray-Ban Meta glasses are now available in India, Mexico, and the UAE, Meta's widest hardware expansion yet.
The Ray-Ban Meta glasses are now available in India, Mexico, and the UAE, Meta's widest hardware expansion yet.
This includes support for Meta AI, which Meta has now rolled out to all the countries where it sells smart glasses.
What Are Ray-Ban Meta Glasses?
Ray-Ban Meta glasses are smart glasses with a camera, microphones, and speakers. They do not have a display.
You can use them to take photos and videos, listen to music/podcasts/audiobooks, make and receive calls, share your first-person view on WhatsApp and Messenger video calls, and query Meta AI, the company's LLM-based assistant that can see via the camera when you ask about something in view. It'll also read out your phone notifications, if you want.
Ray-Ban Meta glasses come in three styles: Wayfarer, Headliner, and Skyler. These styles are offered with four types of lenses: Clear, Sun, Polarized, and Transitions, and come in a variety of colors, for both the frame and the lenses.
Whenever the camera is in use, be it for capture or for Meta AI, a white LED on the front of the glasses will pulse to make others nearby aware.
This brings the total number of countries where the Ray-Ban Meta glasses are sold to 18:
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Canada
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- India
- Ireland
- Italy
- Mexico
- Norway
- Spain
- Sweden
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United States of America
That's actually fewer countries than Meta officially sells its Quest headsets in. Quest is also available in Iceland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, South Korea, Switzerland, and Taiwan. However, Quest headsets are not sold in India, Mexico, or the UAE.
On paper, the expansion of Meta and EssilorLuxottica's smart glasses business into India, Mexico, and the UAE almost triples the market reach, mainly given the enormous population of India.
But India remains one of the poorest countries in the world on a per capita basis, and the Ray-Ban Meta glasses are priced at around 30,000 rupees, close to the average Indian salary. As such, the vast majority of Indians are unlikely to purchase smart glasses any time soon, though the country does have a growing middle class that Meta and EssilorLuxottica are likely hoping to target.
Mexico is a much wealthier nation per capita, though with less than a tenth of the population of India, and the UAE even moreso, but with less than 1%. As the largest eyewear company in the world, EssilorLuxottica has a presence in all three, with stores that it can leverage to let interested potential buyers try on the smart glasses.
David Heaney
Later this year, Meta and EssilorLuxottica reportedly plan to launch Oakley Meta glasses too, and we'll keep an eye on how widely those are sold worldwide.
