FROM SMART PHONES TO SMART GLASSES

Mark Zuckerberg has declared Dawn of a 'Post-Phone Era' with Smart Glasses as the Future of Personal Tech.

Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is making bold claims about the future of technology, saying the dominance of smartphones is coming to an end as the world enters a new era—one where smart glasses take center stage.

In a recent interview, the 41-year-old tech visionary predicted a shift in how people interact with technology, suggesting that smart glasses will soon become as common as smartphones.

“I think the trend in computing is to become more ubiquitous, more natural, more social,” Zuckerberg said. “So you want to be able to interact with the people around you, and I think that's probably going to be the next major platform after phones.”

He doubled down on that vision during Meta’s annual Connect event, describing smart glasses as the next big leap in tech. According to him, these AI-powered wearables—capable of taking photos, making calls, translating speech in real time, and giving instant information—will eventually become a daily essential.

“I think that it's pretty easy to wrap your head around [the idea that] there are already one to two billion people who wear glasses on a daily basis,” he explained at the event. “Just like everyone who upgraded to smartphones, I think everyone who has glasses is pretty quickly going to upgrade to smart glasses over the next decade. And then I think it's going to start being really valuable, and a lot of other people who aren't wearing glasses today are going to end up wearing them, too.”

Meta has already dipped its feet into the market. In 2021, it partnered with Ray-Ban to release the first generation of smart glasses, featuring a five-megapixel camera, stereo speakers, and triple microphones. While those devices were more of a test run, Zuckerberg and his team now have their eyes on much more advanced models.

The tech company has since acquired a $3.5 billion stake in EssilorLuxottica—the global eyewear giant behind brands like Oakley and Ray-Ban—as part of its long-term strategy to expand smart glasses technology.

Among Meta’s upcoming projects are Supernova 2, a model aimed at cyclists and athletes, and Hypernova, which is expected to include a small built-in screen to display messages and notifications directly within the user’s line of sight.

Zuckerberg has been candid about why this shift is necessary. In an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, he reflected on how smartphones have revolutionized communication—but also expressed frustration over the current limitations imposed by tech gatekeepers.

“On the one hand, [the iPhone has] been great, because now pretty much everyone in the world has a phone, and that's kind of what enables pretty amazing things,” he said.
“But on the other hand… they have used that platform to put in place a lot of rules that I think feel arbitrary and [I] feel like they haven't really invented anything great in a while. It's like Steve Jobs invented the iPhone, and now they're just kind of sitting on it 20 years later.”

Meta isn’t alone in the race. Tech rivals like Apple, Google, Samsung, and Snap Inc. are all actively developing their own AI-enhanced smart glasses. Apple is rumored to be in the late stages of testing its version, while Snap continues refining its Spectacles line.

Even with competition heating up, Zuckerberg remains cautiously optimistic, reminding both the public and the tech industry that innovation comes with highs and lows.

“You're never as good as they say when you're up, and you're never as bad as they say when you're down,” he noted in an interview.

As Meta pours billions into this wearable revolution, Zuckerberg’s vision of a world beyond phones may not just be an ambitious idea—it could soon be reality staring us right in the face.