The Ray-Ban Meta sensible glasses Meta introduced last year are catching on with shoppers — Meta offered extra pairs of the new glasses in just a couple of months than the older 2021 Ray-Ban (then referred to as “Tales”) in two full years.

A part of the glasses’ success might be attributed to taking criticism from the competitors — after which hiring them.

The one who launched the brand new Ray-Ban Metas at Meta Connect in October 2023 is its vice chairman of product, Li-Chen Miller, who stepped into the function at Meta in 2022, after working for a Meta rival.

^{Li-Chen Miller. Picture by JOSH EDELSON/AFP by way of Getty Photos}

In line with a Monday Bloomberg report, Miller wrote a radical electronic mail in late 2021 to Alex Himel, then Meta’s head of wearables, detailing her expertise with the Ray-Ban Tales. She had purchased them, and had ideas and concepts about what to enhance.

“She wrote me an electronic mail that articulated what she thought was good in regards to the gadget and what was promising, after which an extended listing of issues that she would enhance,” Himel advised Bloomberg.

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On the time, Miller was company vice chairman of Microsoft Search, Experiences, and Units at Microsoft and had labored there for nearly two decades in program supervisor roles. She had even shared the stage with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at a 2017 keynote event, the place she demoed new office options.

Himel hadn’t requested for the listing, although he agreed with most of Miller’s factors.

The subsequent 12 months, Miller obtained a job at Meta main the wearables division. The e-mail she despatched Himel performed a key function in her taking over the function she at present has at Meta, per Bloomberg.

Miller may take the stage on Wednesday at Meta’s annual Join occasion, the place the corporate is expected to announce updates to its sensible glasses.

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Meta has already indicated that wearables are a spotlight shifting ahead. In line with a press release from earlier this month, Meta goals to “write the historical past of wearables” by drawing out its Ray-Ban deal beyond 2030.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg additionally spoke positively in regards to the Ray-Ban Metas at its latest earnings call in July and mentioned the glasses had promising gross sales numbers.

“Ray-Ban Meta glasses proceed to be a much bigger hit ahead of we anticipated — thanks partly to AI,” Zuckerberg mentioned. “Demand remains to be outpacing our means to construct them, however I am hopeful that we’ll have the ability to meet that demand quickly.”

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