The Rundown - Deep Dive: Did Meta Just Have its iPhone Moment?

Episode Date: September 20, 2025

Meta just unveiled the Meta Ray-Ban Display, $799 AI-powered smart glasses with a built-in screen and a neural wristband that lets you control them with finger gestures. Mark Zuckerberg is betting billions that this could be the next big computing platform, but is it really his iPhone moment or just another expensive gamble? In this episode we explore what the glasses can actually do, why Meta has poured more than $70 billion into Reality Labs, how Apple, Google, and OpenAI are preparing to compete, and the challenges Meta faces with its dependence on Chinese manufacturing. The question is whether these glasses can ever replace the smartphone or if they’ll fade into the long list of failed wearables.This video is for informational purposes only and reflects the views of the host and guest, not Public Holdings or its subsidiaries. Mentions of assets are not recommendations. Investing involves risk, including loss. Past performance does not guarantee future results. For full disclosures, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Public.com/disclosures⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Welcome back to the rundown for another weekend deep dive. This week, Mark Zuckerberg walked on stage and showed off a product that could be the future of technology, the meta rayband glasses with a built-in display that you can control using your mind. So in today's episode, we're going to find out if this is actually meta's iPhone moment or another attempt at trying to make the metaverse into a reality. Are we all going to be walking around with AI glasses on our face in the future? are these going to be collecting dust, just like the meta VR goggles? And why is Zuck even burning billions of dollars and so desperate to make these anyways?

We're going to try to answer those questions in today's episode, so let's dive in. At the Metaconference on Wednesday night this past week, Zuck showed off the new AI-powered smart glasses that they're calling the Meadow Rayband Display. Now, these smart glasses were the next iteration of their surprisingly successful meta-ray-band glasses that they launched back in 2023. The original meta ray bands take pictures and record video and answer questions with AI. But the new ray bands have a built-in display within one of the lenses. And on this display, you'll be able to see notifications and text messages and video calls,

turn-by-turn directions, and a lot more all within the glasses. And to me, the real breakthrough was their neural band. It's a wristband that detects tiny electrical signals in your hand muscles, letting you control the glasses with subtle finger gestures. So you could type with it, select notifications, and things like that. Zuck called it the world's first mainstream neural interface, and the demos look straight out of a sci-fi movie. Now, these glasses are going to be kind of expensive,

met us pricing them at $799, but to be honest, I thought they would be a lot more expensive. In fact, I bet you they're selling these glasses at a loss right now just to get the tech into people's hands, or I guess on their face, to be specific. Now, I was watching the whole keynote address on Wednesday night, and it wasn't all smooth, all right? Zuck had some issues during the live onstage demo.

He tried calling his CTO, Baws, and the call just wouldn't connect. It was kind of awkward, but honestly, I didn't mind it because I liked the fact that meta was doing a live demo in the first place. It kind of gave me like Apple vibes from the Steve Jobs era. Now, Apple doesn't do live demos anymore. They stopped doing them after they had a failed Face ID demo back in 2017. By the way, we're going to talk more about Apple in a bit. Overall, I think these meta glasses made a big splash.

They are the talk of the tech world right now, and it's happening the same week that the iPhone is hitting the market. Betta says they're going to release the glasses on September 30th, so in a couple of weeks. We'll have to see if they end up selling well. I think the bigger question here is, why is Zuck trying so hard and spending so much money to make smart glasses a thing in the first place? Well, it all has to do with this obsession to break away from Apple and Google. So let's talk about it.

Mark Zuckerberg has been obsessed with making his own hardware for over a decade. See, right now, Meta's apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp run on Apple and Android phones. And this has led to some trouble in the past. The most famous one was when Apple limited Meta's ability to track user activities back in 2021, and that hurt Meta's business. And that's why Zuck wants to control the next frontier of computing,

so he's not at the whims of Apple and Google. And he seems to be betting the company on VR and AR, virtual reality and augmented reality. In fact, he was pretty early to the virtual reality stuff. Facebook bought Oculus back in 2014. Oculus made those VR headsets. And since then, Facebook has spent billions of dollars developing the tech. Zuckerberg famously changed the company's name from Facebook to Meta back in 2021.

It was a sign that Mark Zuckerberg was going all in on the Metaverse. And all of this has been very expensive. Since 2019, Meta's Reality Labs Division has racked up $70 billion in cumulative losses. I mean, just in the second quarter of this year, it burned through another, $4.5 billion. And the only way that Meta is able to spend all this money is because their main ads business is a money printer. So Zuck is taking all the money that he makes from ads on Facebook and Instagram and pouring that into this Metaverse side project. And recently, he's spending that money on AI as well. But it's all tied into his vision to create his own hardware product.

And so far, the results have been pretty mixed. I mean, Meta's VR headsets are pretty great, but I think it's safe to say that VR headsets are never going to be widely adopted. People just don't want to wear a giant device on their face. But these smart glasses could be a game changer. Meta released these Rayban smart glasses back in late 2023, and I actually bought a pair back then, and honestly, I used them all the time. I think the reason these became a surprise hit

is because they look like normal glasses. And then on top of that, they take great pictures and video. I use these all the time when playing with my kids and taking videos of them. I prefer using these glasses to take the videos instead of my phone. It kind of keeps you more in the moment, you know? And these glasses also have an AI assistant built in. So again, it all ties into why Zuck is spending so much money on developing this tech,

including AI. But while these glasses are great, they weren't a full replacement for a phone because, you know, they didn't have a screen built in. There's very limited things that you can do with these glasses. But the new meta-rayband display glasses have a screen built in. And that unlocks a lot more functionality. So these new rayband display glasses are a glimpse into what the future of technology could look like. VR headsets might never catch on, but augmented reality smart glasses with built-in

AI, that could be something. These kind of look like something that Tony Stark would have. So that's $70 billion that meta has lost developing all this technology looks like it might finally start paying off. But the competition in the smart glasses space is about to heat up with other big tech names jumping in. So let's talk about it. Meta is not the only company working on smart glasses right now. Every major big tech company is now working on their own version. Let's first talk about the obvious name here, Apple. Mark German from Bloomberg, the front of the show he came on last week, he's reported that Apple has already started developing smart glasses with plans to release them in 2026. They do have a lot of advantages here. They can better integrate their smart glasses with their

existing hardware ecosystem. See, the meta display glasses still require a phone and Apple is probably going to limit how much info and notifications that iPhone users will get on their meta-glasses. And then they're probably going to make that experience way better on their own version of smart glasses. That's kind of been the case with every Apple accessory device. You know, the experience using Apple Watch and AirPods is so much better when they're paired with an iPhone. So Apple's in a good spot here, but that doesn't guarantee success. I mean, just look at the Vision Pro VR headset. That was a massive flaw. The Vision Pro had its own problems. It was super heavy and it cost like $3,500.

And Apple's upcoming smart glasses might not be so great either. Like I'm kind of concerned that Siri is going to be powering these things, you know? But Apple has some time to figure this out. Now, we should talk about Google. They're also working on their own smart glasses. What's funny about Google is they actually released smart glasses back in 2012. They were called the Google Glass. The problem with those glasses were that they were really ugly and kind of useless

and they cost $1,500 at the time, which today is worth like $2,500. So obviously those didn't catch on. But Google is trying again with smart glasses. they recently announced a partnership with Warby Parker. I'm sure they're going to integrate their leading edge AI Gemini models into these glasses. So I think there's a shot that these glasses are going to be good. And then the dark horse here is Open AI, the maker of ChatGPT. Open AI made a big splash earlier this year when they announced the acquisition of Johnny

Ives hardware startup. Johnny Ive used to work at Apple before leaving in 2019, and he's responsible for a ton of Apple's legendary products. So now Johnny's working at OpenAI, and he's also hired away a bunch of Apple's top hardware people to come work for him. So that's obviously fueling rumors of open AI working on a bunch of products, including smart glasses. Honestly, the idea of smart glasses being powered by chat GPT does sound pretty good. But we'll have to see if Johnny's still got it. So I'm definitely keeping an eye out for that. And I guess I have to mention Snap here. Snap was also early to the smart glasses game.

They released a glasses almost a decade ago called Snapchat Spectacles. It was just a pair of goofy-looking glasses with a pretty bad camera on it that connected to your Snapchat account. And they never really caught on, but Snap hasn't given up. Snap recently released an updated version of these Snap Spectacles, and they have more tech and AR integrated into them, but they're kind of ugly. But hey, Snap is trying, though, all right? Overall, it's clear that every big tech company

wants to put a computer on our face, and right now, meta seems to be in the lead when it comes to tech and actual products being available to consumers. But making hardware is a challenge that meta isn't used to dealing with. So, let's talk about it. Something that not many people are talking about right now is the challenges that meta faces when it comes. comes to their supply chain for making these smart glasses.

Meta's main business is social media apps, which is a software that lives on people's phones. Making physical stuff is way different, and they're running into problems, like the deep dependency on Chinese manufacturing. Meta currently relies on the Chinese manufacturer Gortec to make all their products, not just the smart glasses,

but also the VR headsets as well. And Gortec has been aggressively expanding their control over the smart glasses supply chain. According to a report from the Financial Times, Gortec has been buying up optical component companies and suppliers all over the world, which makes META even more dependent on them. They're essentially trying to be the only smart glasses manufacturer in the world. And Gortec is taking full advantage of their position.

Back in 2022, META discovered that Gortec was selling a cheaper knockoff version of its VR headset in China. Meta even thought about suing them, but then decided not to because they don't have another alternative supplier to make their devices. So these are all new challenges for meta, which puts them at a disadvantage against a company like Apple. Apple has been making devices in China for 20 plus years, and they know how to navigate the supply chain challenges and dealing with suppliers copying their design and selling knockoffs. So meta's going to need to figure this out if they ever want to scale up their hardware business and be a legit hardware player in the long term. So what's the takeaway here? Well, as a tech nerd, I'm happy to see meta innovating and creating new technology.

It's great to see that Zuck is using the billions of dollars in advertising money and pushing it to make unique hardware. And there is a good business case here for meta too. If millions of people start walking around with meta glasses on their face, imagine all the ads that meta can sell on that display, right in your vision. On top of that, meta would be less reliant on Apple and Google if they can own the next frontier of hardware. But I think meta is going to face two major hurdles here. First is that smartphones are just the perfect device. You know, they're small enough to carry around everywhere, but good enough to do pretty much anything. You can watch videos, send tax, look at your bank account.

I mean, anything that you want you can do on your phone. Replacing that experience on glasses is going to be really hard to do. And that's why I see smart glasses as another accessory to the phone, kind of like a smart watch. And then I think the bigger concern might be the privacy issue, which I haven't really touched on. How is society going to embrace this kind of tech? Are people going to call out other people for wearing these stuff? smart glasses. But despite the concerns, I have to admire meta's sheer ambition here. Whether this becomes Zuck's iPhone moment or just another niche tech product, I'm just glad that he's taking

the shot. Well, all right, guys, that's it for today's weekend, deep dive. Hope you guys enjoyed that one. Let me know in the comments what do you think about these new meta display glasses, and if you guys plan on buying them for $800? Personally, I'm kind of on the fence. I don't know if I want a screen sitting on my face at all times. So I don't know. Maybe if enough people request in the comments, I'll buy them and do a review. Maybe I'll buy one when we get to 6,000 5 star ratings on Spotify

because we are very close to that. Thank you guys again for listening, watching, and commenting. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the work behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow for the interview. Rosen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Playojo.

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