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The smart glasses race will be white hot next year, and it seems UK-based upstart Nothing wants a piece of the pie, as well. According to Bloomberg, the company is planning to launch AI-powered smart glasses next year, joining the likes of Meta (and soon, Samsung) in the game.
A sassy rival to the ubiquitous Meta?
“The London-based startup is planning to release the glasses during the first half of 2027, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Nothing is also working on new earbuds for later this year with AI-focused features,” says the report. Notably, these smart glasses will skip a built-in display, and will merely put a speaker, mic, and camera assembly on the wearable package.
The idea is almost identical to what Meta has done with the Ray-Ban AI glasses, which now come in a prescription-friendly flavor, too. Apparently, Nothing’s co-founder and chief, Carl Pei, wasn’t too keen on the idea, but subsequently embraced a multi-device strategy. At the moment, the company is mostly focused on smartphones, earbuds, watches, and a small selection of accessories with a distinct look.
A brave bet, but not unexpected
Nothing is not new to the AI game. On the contrary, it’s quite bullish on it. Pei, a former OnePlus executive, recently claimed that AI advancements will make conventional mobile apps a thing of the past. The company recently released a Playground feature that uses AI to let users create their own mini-apps and share them with the community. But smart glasses are an entirely different beast, especially for a small company.
Google has repeatedly shown its Android-based smart glasses with some impressive Gemini-powered experiences. Samsung’s smart glasses, built on Google’s platform, are set to arrive later this year. Meta is the big bad wolf in the field, but Chinese players like Xreal, Rokid, and RayNeo have also done a terrific job lately. Let’s see how Nothing manages to stand out, but the design is surely going to be a talking point.
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