XR Glasses Are The Next Big Thing Since Smartphones

We’ve been looking down for 15 years. Time to look ahead.

Image by Kaspers on Shutterstock

I tuned in to Google I/O a few months ago. Gemini dominated the stage play—it is Google’s tour de force since OpenAI made a statement with ChatGPT.

But what caught my attention was Android XR and Google’s general idea of what smart glasses should be:

• Socially acceptable
• Discreet information delivery
• AI-powered assistance
• Less isolation
• And an ecosystem approach

Instinctively, I went to YouTube to look at Steve Jobs’ 2007 unveiling of the first iPhone.

There was a seasoned entrepreneur with unmatched presentation skills announcing a device that, well, would go ahead to topple likes of Nokia and Blackberry while ushering us into a new era of hand-held supercomputers.

“A phone, an iPod, an internet communicator; and these are not three devices” — Steve Jobs

The perk of the smartphone was the functionalities it packs: a phone, iPod, and internet communicator, all accessible from a multi-touch screen unlike has been seen before. It was the best thing in consumer hardware since the personal computer.