✦ AI Glasses & the Neural BandNarrow moat

After a decade and $80 billion of Reality Labs losses, the hit arrived in eyeglass form: Ray-Ban Display, launched September 2025 at $799 with the Neural Band — an EMG wristband reading finger-muscle signals — sold out its demo appointments within weeks and expanded internationally in early 2026¹. Alongside the second-generation Ray-Ban Metas and Oakley line, the glasses give Meta something it has never possessed: leadership in a hardware category with the next platform inside it, while Apple's iPhone-paired answer is reported for 2027 and its display model for 2028².

The strategic prize explains the decade of losses: glasses are the first credible device to absorb the smartphone's jobs, and the smartphone is the platform whose owners taxed and throttled Meta for fifteen years. Every pair sold is a user reached without Apple's or Google's permission. The risks are cadence and conversion — gadget hits fade, and a hit is not yet a platform. Watch unit numbers as they surface, the developer story (a platform needs apps), and whether Meta holds its lead through Apple's 2027 entry — the incumbent's arrival is the test every category-creator eventually faces.