For one, consumers know what glasses feel like (both from the perspective using it a well as from the perspective of looking at someone using it) — so those are some pretty high expectations to go up against. Your device needs to be super small, lightweight, allow for normal social interaction, feature see-through optics and somehow hide all of the sensors that make the device function while making it look palatable.

AR headsets don’t succeed at most of the above criteria. While their see-through lenses work, they’re packed with technical limitations while also darkening your surroundings and blocking your eyes from view (making social interactions weird and robotic). The form factor is an engineering marvel, but it’s in a weird HMD uncanny valley territory of “Not quite a set of glasses, not quite a headset.” that makes them feel odd to consumers. Goggles? They’re not sure and I’m not either.

Trying to make glasses when the technology is not mature or miniaturized enough is a huge mistake.

So if we don’t have the technology to create glasses for the consumer market, why try to do them at all?

And here lies an opportunity.