Apple had an unusual sudden dive at the end of last Friday's trading, with a small drop of only 2%, but at the last moment of the trading, $50 billion was traded. This kind of huge selling pressure is rare. Many people speculated that this was Warren Buffett's move to sell Apple again, because in the first half of this year, Warren Buffett had already reduced his holdings of Apple shares by a large proportion.
Generally speaking, Buffett will not reveal the reason for making a deal before the deal is completed. Someone asked this question at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting this year, but Buffett did not answer directly, emphasizing that the main motivation was just risk management. However, judging from the recent situation of iPhone 16, it is really below expectations.
The second-hand market sold out the first day the National Bank went on sale. In the past, the price increase for the pro version could continue for a while, but this weekend many scalpers are no longer willing to accept spot goods. The official delivery time has also been shortened by 1-3 weeks compared to last year. Without any special innovations, it is really impossible to attract people to change their phones.
Apple is still a good company, but the dilemma of a technology company is that it has no innovative ideas. Last year's much-anticipated Vision Pro had mediocre results, and the AI that everyone is looking forward to is still in the pie-in-the-sky stage. We'll have to wait and see if there will be any highlights after the full function is launched next year.
However, Meta's changes this year are quite interesting. In the first half of the year, Meta's AI glasses became very popular overseas, and the shipment volume reached millions, which means that the product is recognized by the consumer market. Of course, these glasses are just a transitional form, not the ultimate state of wearables.
Meta Connect 2024 will open the day after tomorrow, and this time we are most concerned about the AR glasses prototype "Orion". According to Meta CTO, this pair of glasses may represent the top achievement of mankind in the field of consumer electronics. Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are quite different from this product. The former focuses on audio and camera functions, but the latter focuses on visual augmented reality experience. Vision plays an extremely important role in human life. If AR glasses can really improve people's abilities in this dimension, it will be a truly disruptive product.
Of course, Meta is not the only company working on this. A few days ago, Snap released its fifth-generation Spectacles AR smart glasses, which are much better than head-mounted glasses in terms of appearance. The weight is also optimized to a certain extent. The weight of 226 grams is much lighter than the 454 grams of Apple Vision Pro. However, there are not many applications at present, and it will take time for developers to participate in enriching the ecosystem. After maturity, AR glasses will definitely be another hot-selling consumer electronics product, and many companies will benefit from them after mass production.
In addition to Meta itself, the overseas key targets also include the eyewear giant Essilor. Today, Meta announced that its partnership with Essilor will be extended to 2030, and promised to launch more ray-ban brand smart glasses products in the future, with the goal of promoting the smart glasses market. However, it should be noted that the cost of such products is still too high and is not suitable for large-scale production. The market expects that Meta's AR glasses will only be prepared for developers and specific audiences this year, and consumer-oriented products will not be available until around 2027. Everyone has been waiting for AR glasses for a long time, and most of the previous products were game consoles in the VR field. Meta's product may become a turning point signal for AR hardware, and it is worth looking forward to the product release tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
