A decade of hype!
Still waiting for users.
For more than a decade, AR, VR and AI glasses have been sold as the “next big platform.” From Google Glass to Magic Leap to Meta’s latest launch, the vision keeps coming back. But consumers keep walking away.
It’s a reminder of how brutal hardware adoption really is. Building new devices means not just solving engineering challenges, but shifting everyday habits in a smartphone-dominated world. That’s why our focus this week is on the bigger question: how macro trends collide with timing and execution, and why some bets flop while others define the future.
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Nordic Hardtech Radar
This Week: Lessons learned from a decade of failed wearables.
Glasses to ashes: why AR, VR and AI wearables keep failing — until they don’t
For more than ten years, tech giants and startups have promised a new era "beyond the smartphone". From Google Glass to Magic Leap to Meta’s latest AI glasses, visions have been bold but reality often relentless: flopped products, mocked demos, no adoption. And it's a pattern that echoes in other industries too, from wearables to batteries and companies like Northvolt.
It’s not that the ideas have lacked imagination. Many of them had billions in funding, global brands behind them, and design teams that could capture headlines. But again and again, they underestimated what it takes to change user behavior in a smartphone-dominated world. And in hardtech – you probably know this – hype only carries you so far.
That’s why it’s worth pausing on the graveyard of wearables. Each failure tells us something important about the gap between vision and execution, and about the brutal reality of hardware adoption.
Ten years of missed bets
Google Glass: the first punchline. Priced at $1,500, it sold an estimated 150,000 units before being shelved in 2015. Glass became a cultural joke before it could scale. And don’t forget Google Smart Lens, the much-hyped smart contact lens project, quietly killed before it ever reached patients.
Magic Leap: billions burned. Backed by $3.5B in funding, the Magic Leap 1 sold fewer than 6,000 units in its first six months. Overhyped visuals and underwhelming delivery forced a pivot to enterprise as the consumer dream collapsed.
Snap Spectacles: novelty without need. Snap wrote down $40M in unsold inventory after selling only about 150,000 pairs against expectations of 800,000. Viral buzz aside, adoption stalled and Spectacles became a cautionary tale.
Microsoft HoloLens: powerful but niche. Launched at $3,000–$3,500, it proved too heavy and expensive for consumers. While the tech found defense and enterprise applications, Microsoft has now exited wearables, handing parts of its $22B Pentagon contract to Anduril.
Nike FuelBand: big brand, bigger flop. Launched in 2012 with huge hype, Nike shut it down just two years later, disbanding a 70-person hardware team. Even global branding muscle couldn’t turn the FuelBand into a lasting habit.
Meta’s latest launch: unproven bet? At Meta Connect 2025, live demos of its new Ray-Ban smart glasses failed on stage. Critics argue the product feels like déjà vu, mocked more than embraced, and with adoption still very much uncertain.
Looking back, the pattern is clear. Hardware is not just about specs or design. It’s about ecosystem readiness, cultural acceptance, and trust. In Sweden, VR headsets were even crowned “Christmas Gift of the Year” in 2016 — a reminder of how quickly hype can peak before reality sets in. And as Miriam Partington at Sifted recently noted, even AI, arguably the fastest-spreading technology of our time, has only reached about 10% of the global adult population since ChatGPT’s release in 2022. Adoption is always slower, and messier, than the hype suggests.
Google Glass may have been futuristic, but it raised questions about surveillance that society wasn’t ready to deal with. Magic Leap showed that even billions in funding can’t guarantee adoption if the experience falls short. Snap assumed novelty was enough to create a habit, but people need utility, not just buzz. HoloLens proved the tech was real but priced itself out of reach. And Nike FuelBand showed that even the strongest brands stumble when the product never becomes essential in daily life.
The lesson is not that AR glasses will never succeed
Meta’s latest attempt highlights the same tension. The product demo failed in real time, and while the company insists adoption is coming, skepticism is louder than excitement. As TechCrunch noted after the Meta Connect event, failure in a live demo is more than a glitch. It signals that execution is still catching up with ambition. For investors and founders in hardtech, the lesson is not that AR glasses will never succeed, but that success cannot be declared by launch alone.
For our community, the lessons cut deep. First, being early can look visionary but also be fatal if the market isn’t ready. Keep in mind that the line between pioneering and premature is razor thin. Second, execution really is everything: the wrong form factor, the wrong price point, or the wrong timing can doom even the best ideas. Third, you need a reason for people to wear the thing, not just a reason for engineers or investors to love it. Hype can win headlines, but only usefulness wins wrists, faces and pockets.
Don’t confuse momentum with inevitability
And this is where the parallel to Northvolt comes in. The Swedish battery giant nailed the macro-trend, electrification and green energy, and built huge momentum. But even with the right market tailwinds, they’ve struggled – to say the least – with timing and execution, facing delays, cost overruns, and shifting investor sentiment. Just like with wearables, the vision was right, but the practical road proved far harder than anticipated. In hardtech, the idea is rarely the problem. What breaks companies is everything that comes after.
The takeaway for founders is simple: don’t confuse momentum with inevitability. Even when you are surfing the right macro wave, success depends on patient execution, ecosystem building, and customer validation. AR wearables will eventually break through, just as large-scale battery manufacturing has. But the graveyard of missed bets should remind us that the hardest part of hardtech is not the idea — it’s making it stick in the real world.
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Selected news from the hardtech ecosystem
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- 812 companies, $19.9B raised and 45 IPOs. Sweden’s deeptech scene is scaling fast, and outperforming tech overall. Get the full scoop.
- From Stockholm to the world: Carl Pei’s Nothing lands $200M Series C to push AI deeper into consumer hardware.
Up next ⏭️
What's brewing in the community?
- Calling FPGA talent! Join Single Technologies in Stockholm and push the limits of DNA sequencing tech. See the role.
- Replique is hiring across research and engineering in Stockholm. The company is scaling its quantum computing team and looking for talent ready to push hardware to the edge. Check the roles here.
- Dalarna Science Park is scouting startups for its Circular Industry Accelerator. From iron oxide to textile waste – apply here.
- Join an Ignite Sweden info session to learn how startups get matched with corporates. A hands-on event for teams seeking pilots and partnerships in hardtech. Online Oct 23, sign up!
- Outlast Fund raises €21M to back anti-hype founders in the Baltics and Nordics, writing the first cheque for long-term innovation.
Looking for the bigger picture?
Check out the Nordic Hardtech Funding List — updated weekly with hundreds of deeptech and hardtech frontrunners across the region.
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