Smart Glasses Will Prevail

Microsoft and Sony both recently announced new augmented reality glasses. The public’s reaction was a resounding “OOOOH fancy” followed quickly by the realization that they’re the adult equivalent of orthodontic headgear. Every journalist took the opportunity to roast the new technology, claiming that as long as the nerdy aesthetic remains, people will choose style over utility.

This is a false argument.
People don’t care about style or utility.

These tech companies were so close to a hit but their marketing teams let them down. Their launch videos show users running around town, meeting up with friends, and carrying out errands. They show users being productive. The MBAs at these Fortune 500 companies don’t realize that most people dream of a future where they can watch llama videos while lying motionless in their autonomous cars.

Successful technology enables people to do less, not more.

Smart glasses’ most avid users will be people that live in their beds because they can literally Snapchat their friends in the wink of an eye. Until the tech companies appeal to those users, they won’t convince them to replace their phones with eyewear. But when they do, expect the public to adopt en masse. Smart glasses will inevitably become a staple of modern life but only because humankind’s laziness is far greater than its ambition.