Skip to main content

Motorola thinks smart glasses won’t replace phones but rather coexist

With today’s launch of the Edge+, Motorola shared some thoughts on how smart glasses and phones will coexist in the future.

Speaking to CNET, Motorola’s head of customer experience Ruben Castano said the “phone will always be kind of that central controller for them” as people get more smart devices, namely glasses. Rather, the handheld and face-worn form factors will work together.

The executive said the smartphone is “something that you always carry with you” given its personal nature. In fact, people will be able to access the metaverse “through their phone directly,” though smart glasses will be the “next level” way of interacting with it.

Unsurprisingly, Castano said that they are still just “planting the seeds” for the AR future. For its part, parent company Lenovo has the ThinkReality A3 that you connect to a PC, while Motorola made an experimental “5G Neckband” to slim down smart glasses by offloading cellular connectivity and processing to another device. 

9to5Google’s Take

These comments from a big phone manufacturer provide some interesting insight into what comes next. While phones might not replace smart glasses entirely, they eventually could if the technology matures enough. The ability to overlay a virtual screen in your line of sight will allow for new augmented reality use cases that are immersive and helpful.

In addition, the other advantage is that this form factor could replace the tablet or desktop by giving you the ability to be productive anywhere in a manner that small phones cannot physically match. The smartphone consolidated everything from the MP3 to handheld camera and GPS. Smart glasses and the ability to have unlimited screens could replace how and where you work. It just might take some time to get there.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Google — experts who break news about Google and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Google on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

Author

Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com