"AI glasses" that cost thousands of dollars, toys or tools?

"AI glasses" that cost thousands of dollars, toys or tools?

Shi TianhaoFollow 2025-12-010 comments0 views0 favorites12 minutes

The AI glasses market is experiencing explosive growth, with major giants entering the market.

AI glasses products launched by companies such as Alibaba and Ideal have their own characteristics, but battery life, intelligent interaction, and price are still challenges they face.

In the future, voice interaction and micro-display technology are expected to become the key to breakthrough.

Recently, AI glasses have experienced an unprecedented outbreak, with internet giants, car companies, and traditional eyewear brands collectively entering the AI eyewear market.

Companies such as Xiaomi, Baidu, Alibaba, Ideal, Rokid, Yingmu Technology, and Thunderbird Innovation have all launched AI eyewear products.

Strive for the next generation of human-computer interaction entrance.

On November 27th, Quark, a subsidiary of Alibaba, released six AI glasses in the S1 and G1 series in Beijing, with a built-in model of Alipay, Gaode, Taobao, and other ecosystems.

On December 3rd, the Livis AI glasses for Ideal Car will also be officially unveiled, featuring the "ideal classmates who wear them and walk".

They feature dual cameras and microphones, allowing remote control of the car, sound recognition of music, and first-person perspective shooting, officially sounding the horn of cross-border car companies.

On one hand, internet giants are using the ecosystem to compete for entry, and on the other hand, car companies are turning AI glasses into "plug-ins on wheels".

The "100-lens war" at the end of 2025 is about to be fully launched, and perhaps 2026 will be the first year of AI glasses.

1. AI glasses, the expanding "cake"

1. Scale

According to IDC, the global smart glasses market shipped 4.065 million units in the first half of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 64.2%.

Today's AI glasses are moving from concept verification to large-scale commercial critical point.

AI glasses are expected to become an important carrier of AI applications, and their features will reshape human-computer interaction.

The market size of the Chinese market in 2025 is about 10 billion yuan, and the quarterly shipments in Q2 2025 are 664,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 145.5%.

Data from market research institutions shows that the long-term potential of AI glasses is still optimistic, and the industry scale will exceed 100 billion yuan within three years.

2. Bubbles

The narrative of AI glasses is becoming more and more grand and diversified, and the overheating of emerging industries will inevitably lead to bubbles.

We should view AI glasses rationally.

Currently, AI glasses are still in the functional verification period, and "trying out" is the main reason for users' experience.

In the first half of this year, JD.com's smart glasses transaction volume increased by more than 10 times year-on-year, with an average of a new product launched every 9 days.

However, industry statistics show that the return rate of AI glasses on platforms such as JD.com and Tmall is about 30%, and the Douyin platform is as high as 40%-50%.

Behind the high return rate, "insufficient practicality of functions" is the core issue of consumer feedback, and it also consumes consumers' minds.

The annual sales volume of traditional glasses in China is about 120 million pairs per year, and the overall consumption scale of glasses has exceeded 200 billion yuan.

About 360-400 million people wear frame glasses (including myopia, hyperopia, and presbyopia), accounting for about 30% of the national population.

Traditional glasses are undoubtedly a huge market, and glasses are essential for people with myopia.

Today's AI glasses lack technological revolution and new business models.

It is more like stacking some of the functions of the phone on the glasses, using AI assistance, only providing a human-computer interaction entrance rather than a new ecosystem.

2. Are AI glasses toys or tools?

1. It's impossible to triangle

AI glasses have an impossible triangle of performance, lightweight, and battery life.

Stronger computing power requires higher power consumption chips, which will shorten battery life.

Longer battery life requires a larger battery, but this will increase weight.

The lighter weight is a prerequisite for all-day wear, but it limits battery capacity and heat dissipation space.

This means that different players have different choices for AI glasses.

From the AI glasses currently launched, there are mainly two solutions in terms of battery life.

The mainstream is to use clumsy but larger-sized legs to solve the problem by sacrificing aesthetics and lightweight.

For example, Xiaomi AI glasses, Xiaodu AI glasses, Thunderbird V3, and other AI glasses that have already been launched, which can be said to have "wide legs and thick frames" compared to ordinary glasses.

Another feature is the detachable battery design used in Quark AI glasses, which ensures the aesthetics of the glasses themselves.

The battery can be plugged and combined with portable charging devices, to some extent, solving the battery life problem.

However, it is slightly lacking in lightweight when carrying batteries and portable battery swapping compartments.

Before the birth of "super batteries," the above two solutions are not perfect and will be the two common choices in the industry.

2. Intelligently disabled interaction

Smart glasses is not a new concept.

Google launched Project Glass in 2012 because of its technological appearance and the ability to take photos, send and receive messages, and check weather conditions.

However, due to the high price and insufficient application, smart glasses' popularity has only recently become hot again.

Compared with the past smart glasses, the new generation of AI glasses that integrate AI capabilities greatly expands from the perspective of intelligent interaction.

Traditional capabilities such as taking photos, video, and calling continue, while capabilities such as payment, navigation, and recognition of everything provide them with more usage scenarios.

However, from some evaluations and user feedback, it is still within the range of intellectually disabled interaction.

Quark AI glasses are deeply integrated with Taobao, Alipay, Gaode, etc.

The "price recognition" function can identify products and display the same price on Taobao, and the navigation of Amap on the phone can also be displayed in the glasses through the connection of two terminals.

Alipay's "Look at Pay" can also be connected to glasses for direct use, making its application scenarios more diverse.

Especially with the support of AI, you can ask questions through voice, have the glasses answer or even display the answer.

However, considering the size issue, whether it is the battery, chip, hardware, etc., all need to be configured in a very small space, so the intelligent interaction capability is still much weaker than smartphones and smartwatches, which hinders the enthusiasm of more users.

3. Expensive price

If you say, bulky, unsightly, and weak intelligence are the disadvantages of AI glasses, the high price compared to other digital products is the only reason why many users who like to "try new things" are kept out of the market.

Even though it has many drawbacks, some novel gameplay is still interesting.

However, the fact that the prices are generally higher has made many players hesitate.

According to JD smart glasses's semi-annual report, the average price of smart glasses in the first half of 2025 will decrease from over 2000 yuan to around 1500 yuan.

But if you want to buy a "decent" AI glasses, 2000 yuan is just the starting price.

Taking Quark AI glasses as an example, for the S1 and G1 series, if you want an S1 with a micro-display screen, the lowest price is 3799 yuan, which is only a monochrome display.

If the budget is within 2000 yuan, you can only buy the G1 without a micro-display screen.

Although the two AI glasses were released together, there is a huge difference in user experience and functionality, whether it is with or without a screen.

Compared to smartphones and smartwatches that can be bought for five to six hundred yuan, the pricing of AI glasses is generally too expensive.

As one of the digital enthusiasts, I still want to wait and see under the influence of these three questions.

After all, a practical AI glasses currently cost less than four thousand yuan to purchase, and the services provided by ordinary AI glasses are too limited.

In this situation, it is better to wait and see.

3. Break through in voice interaction and micro-display

Compared to the earliest Google Project Glass, AI glasses have made significant breakthroughs in practicality and have gradually become a new generation of highly potential smart hardware categories.

The good news is that the new Project Aura, jointly created by Google and XREAL, is rumored to be released at the end of 2025 and released in 2026.

Undoubtedly, with the research and development investment and promotion of many technology giants, AI glasses are a category with more potential than smartwatches.

Because it only needs to be worn on the eyes, and has instant characteristics, and when using a smartwatch, people need to lift their hands to see the screen, and use the other hand to operate, the convenience is far behind the latter.

However, AI glasses also have their own shortcomings, that is, they cannot be operated by touch.

In fact, from the usage characteristics of the new generation of AI glasses, it can be seen that voice interaction is a natural and suitable way of interaction for them.

For example, the Alipay payment of Quark AI glasses, the owner can directly wake up the Alipay through voice (voiceprint mismatch), outsiders cannot, combining security and convenience.

It can be said that the boundary of voice interaction is the boundary of AI glasses.

Although there are buttons on AI glasses that can meet some mainstream function control, more diverse scenes require deep cooperation with voice interaction.

For the current AI glasses, whether or not they are equipped with a micro-display screen, the experience and practicality are completely one in the sky and one in the ground.

In terms of navigation, it is not very convenient to hold a phone or look at a smartwatch or smartphone.

If it can be combined with AI glasses, it will be very relaxed and comfortable.

However, without a micro-display screen, users can only use navigation capabilities through the voice prompts of AI glasses.

After having the display function, users can directly see navigation instructions from the glasses, which is not a big difference.

Similarly, whether it is AI recognition of everything or the connection with large models, ordinary AI glasses can only provide voice prompts, while AI glasses with micro-display can directly display text or even images on small screens.

From the perspective of our daily life scenarios, it is not convenient to operate smartphones and smartwatches by hand in many occasions such as commuting, driving, and traveling.

The smart glasses, which just hangs on the ear, has a natural advantage of convenience.

However, these advantages require richer voice interaction and micro-display capabilities to support them.

In any case, AI glasses are now showing the charm of hardware categories such as smartwatches and smart speakers from the past.

Currently, their viewing capabilities are still relatively weak, and they cannot bear the position of a strong tool for human-computer interaction.

But the potential it has shown is already very attractive.

When it bids farewell to the attribute of toys, it must also be the time for its own explosion.

⚡ Analysis originally published Dec 2025 — full English translation presented above.