Why ‘Open Platform’ Is the Next Big Frontier for Smart Glasses
This morning, the young smartglasses company Even Realities launched Even Hub , an open app store and developer platform for its G2 line of smartglasses with a display . This could be the opening salvo in a war between smartglasses with open and closed display platforms.
On the one hand, there’s Meta. This smartglasses giant has so far maintained a completely closed approach to its relatively new Display glasses : Meta determines what your smartglasses can do and which apps you can access. Meta’s foil is Even Realities, a small tech company that recently launched a storefront with over 50 third-party apps, allowing users to decide for themselves what to install and what to ignore.
While the market for AR smart glasses with displays is currently limited to tech-savvy users and early adopters, if HUD glasses become popular (and both companies maintain their current strategies), the winner will determine how much control users will have over their augmented future.
Competing strategies for smart glasses with displays
In terms of overall market share, Meta and Even Realities are in completely different worlds. Meta’s market capitalization is approximately $1.47 trillion, and its Ray-Ban and Oakley smartglasses line accounts for approximately 82% of the smartglasses market . Even Realities is valued at approximately $10 million , and its annual revenue of $3.3 million represents less than one percent of the overall smartglasses market. But in the display-enabled eyewear niche, the two companies are evenly matched: Meta has sold approximately 20,000 pairs of its high-end Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses , while Even Realities’ revenue estimates for 2025-2026 suggest it has sold between 10,000 and 25,000 pairs of its G2 glasses.
Two companies are taking very different approaches to selling “heads-up display glasses.” The Meta Display glasses, priced at $799, are designed to perform all the functions of popular head-up display glasses, but with the addition of high-quality, full-color video and Ray-Ban’s signature design. The $599 Even Realities G2 glasses lack a built-in camera or audio, and their monochrome display is housed in a discreet frame that will defy all but the most discreet eyewear. They’re designed as fashionable, functional, everyday glasses that can also project a map in front of your eyes or help you fool bartenders when needed. For more information, check out our review of the latest generation of Even Realities glasses .
The most significant difference between these companies may be their approach to software. All technologies exist on a continuum between “open” and “closed,” and Meta smartglasses have so far occupied the most restrictive part of that spectrum. You get a carefully curated experience, with Meta acting as the arbiter of what’s installed on your display, whether you’re wearing Display glasses or Ray-Ban Metas. You don’t download apps; you toggle experiences on and off. You can turn Apple Music on or off, but you can’t choose to listen to music on a new, third-party platform. You can’t remove core features you don’t need. Even something as simple as changing the AI activation words is off-limits; it’s “Hey, Meta,” or nothing.
Even Realities uses a semi-open approach, similar to Apple’s App Store. It’s not an “anything goes” approach like Linux, but you can browse Even Realities’ library of approved apps and choose whether you need an EPUB reader for your glasses, a chess game, or a battery indicator for your Tesla. Even Realities also allows you to remove even the most basic features you don’t use from your glasses.
Reflections on Meta’s plans for future smart glasses
It’s worth noting that Meta is fundamentally open to third-party development. The Meta Horizon Store for the Quest line of VR headsets is a massive, dynamic marketplace where you can find everything from high-quality games to tiny, clunky tools. The company has ceased most of its own VR game development , while pledging to continue supporting independent developers. Therefore, it’s entirely possible/likely that Meta is waiting for the hardware to mature before opening a more open store for its headsets, or simply adding a “Showcase” section to the existing Horizon Store.
Openness is not necessarily better
While the initial reaction might be to conclude that the choice offered by an open system is preferable to a closed one, this wasn’t always the case in the world of technology. Nintendo dominated the video game industry in the 1980s, maintaining strict quality control over games released for its NES, and few kids wanted the more “open” competing systems. Adobe Flash dominated everything the “open internet” offered in the early 2000s, only fading away when another relatively closed system, Apple’s iPhone, refused to support it . Speaking of Apple, iOS devices account for 63% of the US smartphone market , while its closest competitor, the more open Android, consistently ranks second. Time, as they say, will tell whether consumers prefer a curated experience, a modular, open experience, or even whether they want glasses with a HUD.