the connected eyewear market | France

1.1 Definition and scope of study

The connected glasses (or smart glasses) are intelligent computing devices that are worn like traditional eyeglasses and have a variety of uses. For example, they can use enhanced reality to offer a range of real-time information in front of the user's eyes, play music or contain technologies that detect falls. The user can then interact with their connected glasses thanks to wink or finger/hand gesture detection systems. The use of connected glasses has not yet been democratized, even if it is already applied in fields such as medicine or logistics . We will not study virtual reality helmets in this study

The world market is still limited but is expected to experience exponential growth with a CAGR of 125.8% between 2017 and 2022 . The market is driven by work-related uses of these glasses in logistics, maintenance, training or health. Indeed, the connected glasses did not arouse the enthusiasm of the general public and manufacturers tend to focus on the products offered to businesses. This is the case of Google which, after the failure of its Google Glass, launched a professional edition. Other brands, such as Huawei or Bose, are taking advantage of the success of Bluetooth headsets to develop frames that play music

In France, the market should also experience strong growth and some start-ups are seeing their success grow thanks to their precise segmentation. Ellcie Healthy is developing glasses for detecting falls of the user, monitor physical activity or prevent falling asleep at the wheel . These frames are distributed in the Optic 2000, l opticians represent an increasingly important distribution channel for these glasses

Several obstacles remain, however, to the dissemination of these connected objects. First of all, there is a great mistrust of users on the collection of their data and respect for privacy The price despite its steady decline since the first generations of glasses appeared, also remains a major disincentive to purchase. Still, market players remain confident and invest heavily in these technologies and innovations are emerging as swimming goggles or even connected lenses .