ESLOY Essilor Luxottica (PK)

By Manuela Mesco 

MILAN -- Several years after the failure of Google's smart glasses, eyewear makers and tech companies -- encouraged by the arrival of a giant new player in the eyewear sector -- are taking another crack at a product they hope can compete in the market for wearable technology.

The recentEUR50 billion ($53 billion) Italian-French merger between eyewear manufacturers Luxottica SpA and Essilor International SA could revive a market that, according to bullish estimates, could approach 55 million units by 2022. But while eyewear groups enjoy an edge when it comes to style and distribution heft, they may struggle to succeed where even the biggest tech giants have so far stumbled.

The 2012 launch of Google Glass was largely a flop, sunk by concerns over privacy, competition from other wearable devices and poor aesthetics that left wearers looking like cyborgs. Today, Google sells the product mostly for business use and has put aside the idea of pitching it to a mass audience for now.

After Google, tech companies ranging from startups to the likes of Microsoft Corp. and Seiko Epson Corp. have all tried new versions of connected eyewear. But none of them has stood out as a major commercial success, in many cases because the monitor on the lenses are too intrusive. Their functions are too similar to smartphones or the designs too nerdy, analysts say. Privacy concerns -- such as the problem of using the glasses to take videos without the subjects' knowledge -- were also a deterrent.

Instead, some tech companies are concentrating on a narrower audience. U.S.-based Vuzix Corp., a smart-glasses specialist, has eyewear aimed at business use, such as allowing remote technical support or training, while Sony Corp. is providing technology for developers who want to make apps that can be installed in smart glasses. Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. recently launched glasses that allow wearers to take photos and videos.

"Phase one...has unquestionably been a flop" in creating a mass market for smartglasses, said Steven Waltzer, analyst at Strategy Analytics.

Meanwhile, the eyewear industry -- under pressure to feed younger customers' desire for new technology -- is instead pressing to find products that could help carve out a mass market that has eluded smart glasses so far.

Eyewear maker Safilo SpA turned down an offer in 2014 from Google to make wired frames because "Google's philosophy was to bring all the functions of a smartphone into the eyeglasses," said Nicola Belli, head of innovation at the Italian company. When his team tested Google's prototypes, "the feeling was of too much information," he recalled. Google didn't respond to requests for comment on the project.

Instead, Safilo is now working on its own smart glasses that it claims can read brain waves and help wearers concentrate, with an app that guides the person through exercises aimed at regaining focus. Other eyewear makers are working on overcoming basic problems such as making the technology smaller, the battery last longer and the display inside the glasses easier to see in daylight.

By combining their strengths, the new Essilor-Luxottica group is aiming high, seeking to put together "our researchers, our frame designers, all our strengths," Essilor Chairman Hubert Sagnières said soon after the deal was announced.

Essilor, a major lens manufacturer, is making lenses that recognize faces and everyday objects. In turn, Luxottica, which brings expertise in manufacturing frames and had joined with Google on Google Glass, is working on lighter materials, such as graphite, that can hold the technology needed for smart glasses without weighing them down.

The Italian company, which makes stylish glasses for the likes of Chanel, Giorgio Armani and Prada, can also make a sleeker design -- thus addressing a major deterrent to the early models of smart glasses.

"Smart glasses must first be functional, desirable, wearable," said Federico Buffa, R&D director for Luxottica. "Then it can offer useful (smart glasses) functions."

Luxottica already has launched a smart-glasses model under its sports brand Oakley, with technology from Intel Corp., that it hopes can compete with other sports wearables.

For instance, the lenses help monitor a wearer's heart rate, track routes, give feedback on performance and provide customized training programs. To resolve the issue of images popping out on the lenses, a voice drives the wearer through the information needed. Luxottica's enormous distribution heft -- it owns Sunglass Hut and LensCrafters -- could also help bring smart glasses into the mainstream, analysts said.

Write to Manuela Mesco at manuela.mesco@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 09, 2017 05:44 ET (10:44 GMT)

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