Those who can't wait, it must be said, to try the new glasses that can also make you feel better, launched last July by Essilor Luxottica, could make a splash next January 9th at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where they can already be tested. For sale in Italy we will have to wait until next year, while after the summer they will be on sale in the Use as over the counter products, i.e. without the need for a medical prescription.
Expectations for the new "glasses that feel" are very high in the group led by Francesco Milleri given that it is a market potentially of over 1,6 billion people in the world.
Milleri: 2024 will be a booming year
Since the new glasses It was launched, tests have started in the digital laboratory in via Tortona 35 in Milan, the headquarters where experts, volunteers, large customers and partners converge from all over the world to measure the performance of the new product. “We have started a 2024 that will see us in strong expansion in new markets. The common basis of growth will be represented by new digital technologies and from the use ofartificial intelligence, at the basis of the “glasses that hear” and the second generation of Ray-Ban Meta” he said Francesco Milleri president and CEO of the Italian-French giant. “It's just the beginning of a new adventure that will lead to revolution of EssilorLuxottica in other sectors. Audiology, wearables and advanced diagnostic systems are just some of the challenges." The correction of vision and hearing represents “a new leap into the future, Milleri further underlines, also reminds us of the uniqueness of the group we are building, which while realizing and strengthening its med-tech vocation, enhances the Italian taste for luxury and craftsmanship combined with the French technology of new lenses. The strategy does not change: be the best in every field, as he taught us Leonardo DelVecchio".
It all started with the purchase of the Israeli Nuance
In 2022 the group had made a strategic acquisition: the Israeli startup Nuance, specialized in hearing aids. Since then, one has been created in Italy team of 50 experts dedicated - in a network that horizontally affects over a thousand people in the group - to weave the fabric of the project. Driving the Super Audio team the former Amplifon manager was called Stefano Genco. With him, expert audio technicians and engineers recruited by big tech companies such as Bose, Google or Apple, to integrate the best audiological and digital skills. Behind it is the network of over 40 research centers around the world and investments in R&D amounting to hundreds of millions. “Finding an answer to consumer needs and doing so with innovative solutions is part of our DNA” said Milleri at the presentation of the project, “just as contributing to the development of the entire optical market, for the benefit of the entire sector, is part of our strategy."
A potential market of over 1,6 billion people worldwide
While Essilux tests the convergence of optics and acoustics directly with customers in around 300 stores in Europe and Italy, the global team works to offer acoustic solutions integrated into glasses for over 1,2 billion consumers with mild to moderate defects. It is a potentially vast market, which covers 80% of people with hearing impairments in the world today over 1,6 billion.
At work are Italy, with the Agordo factory, USA, China and Israel
Then there is an industrial and development triangle that sees historic Italy at the centre Agordo factory and stretches to Israel, cradle of Nuance and its innovation, to reach on the one hand the Use, the group's window on the world of technologies and software, and on the other in China, in Dongguan, where the EssilorLuxottica factory dedicated to miniaturization is located, an industrial hub also for Ray-Ban Meta.
And 'the tech the key to the new glasses that integrate microphones, speakers, chipsets, batteries and sound management algorithms into the tiny space of a frame, without sacrificing aesthetics or weight, in line with traditional frames. To bring the new glasses to the public, the multinational aims to collaborate with all operators in the distribution of hearing aids, starting with the big ones in the sector such as Amplifon, Audionova or WS Audiology. The goal is to create new opportunities for those consumers with mild or moderate hearing defects who would never enter the market for traditional hearing aids but who could appreciate a more accessible, simple to use, digital and invisible solution.
