The Ray-Ban Meta good glasses Meta introduced last year are catching on with shoppers — Meta bought extra pairs of the new glasses in just a couple of months than the older 2021 Ray-Ban (then known as “Tales”) in two full years.
A part of the glasses’ success may very well be attributed to taking criticism from the competitors — after which hiring them.
The one who launched the brand new Ray-Ban Metas at Meta Connect in October 2023 is its vice chairman of product, Li-Chen Miller, who stepped into the function at Meta in 2022, after working for a Meta rival.
In line with a Monday Bloomberg report, Miller wrote a radical e mail in late 2021 to Alex Himel, then Meta’s head of wearables, detailing her expertise with the Ray-Ban Tales. She had purchased them, and had ideas and concepts about what to enhance.
“She wrote me an e mail that articulated what she thought was good in regards to the gadget and what was promising, after which an extended checklist of issues that she would enhance,” Himel instructed Bloomberg.
On the time, Miller was company vice chairman of Microsoft Search, Experiences, and Gadgets at Microsoft and had labored there for nearly two decades in program supervisor roles. She had even shared the stage with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at a 2017 keynote event, the place she demoed new office options.
Himel hadn’t requested for the checklist, although he agreed with most of Miller’s factors.
The following yr, Miller received a job at Meta main the wearables division. The e-mail she despatched Himel performed a key function in her taking up the function she at the moment has at Meta, per Bloomberg.
Miller might take the stage on Wednesday at Meta’s annual Join occasion, the place the corporate is expected to announce updates to its good glasses.
Meta has already indicated that wearables are a spotlight shifting ahead. In line with a press release from earlier this month, Meta goals to “write the historical past of wearables” by drawing out its Ray-Ban deal beyond 2030.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg additionally spoke positively in regards to the Ray-Ban Metas at its latest earnings call in July and mentioned the glasses had promising gross sales numbers.
“Ray-Ban Meta glasses proceed to be a much bigger hit earlier than we anticipated — thanks partly to AI,” Zuckerberg mentioned. “Demand remains to be outpacing our means to construct them, however I am hopeful that we’ll be capable of meet that demand quickly.”
