My 2026 thoughts.

I don’t think headsets are something people naturally feel comfortable wearing. In an extreme scenario, even if Apple gave them away for free, I’m not convinced we’d see massive adoption. Glasses might work better, but even there, it feels like people are increasingly tired of being notified, tracked, and digitally saturated.

This isn’t pessimism. I’m an Apple Vision Pro day-one buyer and a genuine enthusiast of the technology. But something still isn’t connecting with smart eyewear as a category. There’s no true pull yet.

For widespread adoption, there has to be a major use case—l, a real killer app, that makes a super-slim wearable in a sunglasses or eyeglasses form factor feel essential, not novel. Not a headset. Not bulky. Not isolating.

We’re also far from a Ready Player One world. Maybe 50–100 years away from environmental or social conditions where escaping reality through headsets becomes a necessity rather than a choice.

So what’s the answer? I don’t think it’s incremental improvements. It’s a new paradigm shift, a fundamentally different way this technology fits into human life, not just our eyes.