What Display Daily thinks: The potential of AR glasses is increasingly apparent, with TrendForce predicting shipments could reach 25 million units by 2030. By that time, Meta’s investment in Reality Labs might exceed $100 billion, with other tech companies following suit in their quest to reshape our digital future.
Meta appears determined to position its AR glasses as practical alternatives to Apple’s Vision Pro, which relies on video pass-through and has faced criticism for its odd appearance and technical limitations. Meta’s approach seems commendable; unlike Apple’s complex and potentially cumbersome solution, Meta is betting on simplicity and practicality. This effort could benefit the entire display industry by setting a new standard and opening up the market if Meta’s vision wins out.
AR glasses, regardless of which company leads, emphasize heads-up display technology. This puts the spotlight on display manufacturers, particularly those specializing in microdisplays. While Meta’s Orion AR glasses shift the bulk of the tech to external components like pucks and wristbands, the core visual element remains crucial. However, it’s essential to remain cautious, as marketing hype continues to keep these glasses artificially lightweight and fashionable, despite the need for substantial computing power.
It’s been a good week for microdisplays and Japan’s JBD and Sony, in particular. Let’s hope we all end up looking like Pontdexter in our AR specs-riddled AI utopian future. This si Display Daily so, yeah, we want a display on every head. A glorious mission statement if there ever was one.
Meta’s Orion Glasses
At Meta Connect 2024, the company announced its Orion AR glasses, primarily intended for developes and testers, but with a view to developing concepts towards a future consumer version. It may seem astute of Meta to seed development of potential applications in advance of any consumer product division, but you also get the sense that the company is trying to stake claim to the future of Alt Reality with a not-Apple approach.
The Orion AR glasses use a Silicon Carbide (SiC) waveguie and JBD’s full-color LEDoS technology for the displays. The glasses boast a 70-degree FOV, They weight about 98 grams. I have seen some comments about it having a 13 pixels per degree resolution. Most of the early enthusiasts and influencers who have taken to the device are toeing the party line at Meta which is, AR is better than VR, directly positioning the technology against the Vision Pro.
But, the glasses are not alone in doing the work. There is an external puck that handles most of the computational load and communications with the glasses. There is a wristband that detects electric signals in the arm allowing for gesture control. And battery life is about 2 hours.
Realistically, Meta and Apple are a few years away from coming up with a meaningful consumer product with anything near the level of capabilities that are being showcased in Orion or Vision Pro. It’s also worth remembering that Qualcomm has its own designs on being a de facto platform for AR glasses and has a meaningful presence among third party developers and ODMs. As for displays, LEDoS, MicroLED, Micro OLED, and a number of other approaches are all viable because none of these technologies has a price/performance advantage right now. They all claim they will have it, but it seems like the door is open to all comers. At least for now.
The best way to look at Orion is that it may mean Meta has finally found a mass market outlet for its metaverse ambitions. It doesn’t necessarily mean it will succeed any more than it has with other Reality Labs’ follies, but there is more of a focussed approach here for the company. Going up against Apple is probably a good thing, too, because Meta does its best work when it sets out to destroy the competition.
For now, the commentary is isolated among the tech press orbiting around big tech and the dedicated influencers who keep the lights burning for all things AR and VR on social media. Meta is waging a PR war in Alt Reality against Apple and seems to be winning.
