For some time, we've been on the right side of this call: Meta's smart glasses are the clear winner versus Apple Vision Pro for one simple reason: they're built for daily life. The value proposition is obvious too. They're priced only a notch above high-end Ray-Bans, yet drastically cheaper than the goofy-looking $3,500 Vision Pro headset.

Let's take a step back to December 2024:

One of our focuses has been Meta's smart glasses supply chain. That work highlighted how Meta reportedly took a nearly 3% stake in EssilorLuxottica, the world's largest eyewear maker and the parent of Ray-Ban and Oakley, in a deal valued at around $3.5 billion last summer.

The investment only made sense at the time, with research firm Sensor Data showing increased downloads of the Meta app that implied surging demand for the smart glasses, while Apple Vision Pro slid into the abyss.

Fast forward to today. EssilorLuxottica reported fourth-quarter sales rose 18% (constant currency) to 7.6 billion euros, well above the roughly 11% increase Wall Street analysts tracked by Bloomberg expected.

Growth was driven by surging demand for Meta's Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and Oakley smart glasses. The company sold more than 7 million units last year.  

Full-year 2024 adjusted operating income rose 6.8% to 4.5 billion euros, but the adjusted margin was 16%, about 70 basis points lower than 2023 (constant exchange rates), with pressure intensifying in the second half.

"Looking ahead to the next five years, we are committed to delivering solid revenue growth, with the adjusted operating profit's pace broadly aligned," CEO Francesco Milleri and Deputy CEO Paul Du Saillant wrote in a statement.

Since the Meta Ray-Bans launched in September 2023, shares of EssilorLuxottica in Europe have nearly doubled, though they've more recently pulled back about 21% from the high reached in late 2025.

Last month, smart glasses took center stage at CES 2026 in Las Vegas.

Goldman analyst Jerry Shen recently published a detailed view of the AI and AR glasses supply chain, breaking it down by the companies that supply the critical components behind these devices (read report).

Vision Pro can't do this...

Tim Cook blew it with Vision Pro ... Meta takes the win.

Apple cooked.