Facebook CFO David Wehner has suggested that the company's first smartglasses "won't come close" to meeting the company's eventual goal in augmented reality.

First announced back in September, the social network giant partnered with luxury glasses manufacturer EssilorLuxottica to develop the smartglasses as part of a "multi-year" collaboration.

Luxottica is responsible for many of the premium sunglasses and spectacles brands, including Persol and Prada, but the first product in this series will come under the Ray-Ban badge. 

However, though it's confirmed these smartglasses will land at some point in 2021, Wehner has hinted that the frames are very much a tentative step into the area. 

"The first product that we will have in this area, I outline expectations, will not even come close to what we want in the end", he said, speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference.

Since there will be no true AR element to the experience, the fact Facebook has loftier ambitions isn't entirely surprising. However, it does perhaps hint at a couple of things.

Firstly, though we don't know exactly what features the glasses will have just yet, this latest comment backs up the theory that the glasses will offer very basic smart functions - similar to what we've seen with the Amazon Echo Frames and Snap Spectacles. 

It also confirms that Facebook is still very much invested in developing Project Aria, its experimental research prototype that is more geared towards AR.

All the details surrounding the Ray-Ban model, including an official product name, specifications, software capabilities, pricing and design will be revealed "closer to launch". All we can guess at this stage is that Facebook will be handling the tech, Luxottica the design (it seems) and Essilor the lenses.

The good news, though, is that we likely won't have to wait long. In January, Andrew Bosworth, Head of Facebook's Reality Labs, outlined in the Tech @ Facebook blog that the Ray-Ban glasses would launch "sooner rather than later".

When we do eventually get a glimpse, let's hope the frames look a little closer to regular sunglasses or spectacles, rather than the futuristic devices we've seen from other big names in the space.