Author | Wuzi

The competition in the AI glasses market is intensifying.

Image source: Apple

On April 13, 2026, Huawei Terminal officially announced that it would launch its first pair of AI glasses at the Huawei Pura series and full-scenario new product launch event on April 20. These glasses feature a screen-free and lightweight design. Coincidentally, according to Bloomberg, Apple is also developing AI glasses codenamed N50, expected to hit the market in 2027, also without a screen.

Huawei and Apple are not the first to step into the AI glasses arena. After Meta sparked the AI glasses market in 2023, tech companies like Xiaomi, Kwark, and Li Auto have launched similar products.

As global tech giants, Huawei and Apple’s simultaneous entry into the AI glasses market signals that these devices are not just simple smart gadgets but have the potential to become gateway-level terminals.

However, in contrast to the tech companies' fervent development of AI glasses, from a market perspective, these devices currently only appeal to a niche group of tech enthusiasts and have yet to win over the general consumer base.

This raises the question: Why has the AI glasses industry fallen into a stalemate of 'internal excitement but external apathy'? When will AI glasses products experience a revolutionary 'iPhone moment'?

01

Smart glasses have been around for a while, with AI powering a resurgence

In fact, smart glasses are not a new concept. As early as April 2012, Google launched Project Glass, an AR glasses prototype weighing just 50g, supporting functions like photography, video recording, and calls. However, due to its high price and limited battery life, the product failed to gain significant market traction.

Image source: Google

Given the 'impossible trinity' of performance, battery life, and portability, smart glasses have since evolved into two extremes. One camp, represented by AR and VR glasses, sacrifices portability for superior display capabilities. The other camp, represented by Bluetooth glasses, prioritizes lightness and portability but offers limited functionality.

Although AR, VR, and Bluetooth glasses each have their niche audiences, their lack of core use cases that resonate with ordinary users has confined them to niche positioning, preventing them from becoming mass computing platforms on par with smartphones.

Image source: Meta

Recognizing the difficulty of display-based glasses in gaining market traction, Meta, which is fully committed to the 'metaverse,' took a different approach. In September 2023, it partnered with Ray-Ban to launch AI glasses, Ray-Ban Meta, abandoning display functionality and matching ordinary glasses in appearance and weight, becoming an instant hit.

According to EssilorLuxottica, the manufacturer of Ray-Ban Meta, sales of AI glasses co-developed with Meta reached 7 million units in 2025. From 2023 to 2024, EssilorLuxottica's total AI glasses sales were 2 million units.

From a product standpoint, Ray-Ban Meta is similar to Bluetooth glasses, both being more lightweight than traditional smart glasses. However, compared to the single-function Bluetooth glasses, Ray-Ban Meta incorporates cameras and AI, significantly expanding its use cases.

Image source: Meta

Ray-Ban Meta features Meta's self-developed Llama model, allowing users to issue voice commands to check the weather, identify surroundings, take photos/videos, and more. Essentially, smart glasses integrated with large models resemble an always-online intelligent assistant, freeing users' hands and enabling one-click operations.

Farsight believes that Ray-Ban Meta's success stems from Meta's deep understanding of market demand for eyewear products. Users first need a pair of glasses they can wear daily, with technological features being secondary.

Ray-Ban Meta first meets the basic need of 'wearability' with its lightweight design, then deeply integrates AI technology to significantly broaden its capabilities, naturally attracting users seeking novelty.

02

Homogeneous AI glasses forms, ecosystems create differentiated experiences

Ray-Ban Meta's success not only opened up new possibilities for Meta but also ignited the 'AI glasses' market.

Image source: Omdia

Data disclosed by Omdia shows that global AI glasses shipments reached 8.7 million units in 2025, surging 322% year-on-year, with shipments expected to exceed 15 million units in 2026. In 2025, China's AI glasses shipments were approximately 1 million units, making it the fastest-growing AI glasses market globally, accounting for 10.9% of the global market and ranking second.

Seeing the accelerating release of dividends in the AI glasses arena, tech companies like Xiaomi, Rokid, and Alibaba have entered the fray, launching products along the lines of Ray-Ban Meta.

Due to highly similar design philosophies and hardware configurations, most AI glasses on the market today offer similar basic experiences, supporting four main functions: photography, audio playback, AI Q&A, and ecological interconnection, with differences primarily concentrated in the ecological interconnection dimension.

Image source: Kwark

For example, as a product developed by an automaker, Li Auto's AI glasses, Livis, feature deep integration with Li Auto vehicles, allowing users to control the vehicle and check its status via voice commands. Leveraging its rich e-commerce ecosystem, Alibaba's Kwark AI glasses support services like Alipay's 'glance-to-pay,' Taobao real-time price comparison, and Fliggy itinerary reminders.

Image source: Li Auto

Xiao Li, a Li L6 owner, had long been bothered by the lack of headrest speakers and recently purchased Li Auto's AI glasses, Livis. 'I've been following Livis since Li Auto launched it last year, but I didn't see much use for it. Recently, the glasses updated their system to support headrest speaker functionality, so I decided to buy them,' Xiao Li told Farsight.

Next, the AI glasses launched by Huawei and Apple will also focus on building core competitiveness through ecosystems. According to Bloomberg, Apple's AI glasses will require pairing with an iPhone, enabling functions like photography/video recording, call answering, and notification receiving, with core AI capabilities relying on iOS's Siri.

In response, Liu Jiansen, Research Director at Omdia, stated, 'The ultimate winners in the AI glasses arena will be those who can seamlessly integrate AI glasses into a broader device ecosystem—connecting glasses with smart devices, user environments, and services to provide real value in users' interconnected lives.'

'However, it's important to note that while smartphones vary in performance, their core functions and usage paradigms are highly consistent, creating stable user expectations and a foundation for scale.

Imagine if only Alibaba phones supported online shopping, WeChat phones supported social networking, and Douyin phones allowed short video viewing. The mobile internet ecosystem would not be as prosperous. From this perspective, AI glasses' varying interconnection capabilities based on different ecological barriers are not a differentiated advantage but rather an external manifestation of product immaturity.

If AI glasses remain trapped in ecological silos, they may attract some niche audiences but will struggle to form a unified product perception and ecological synergy, ultimately limiting industry scale expansion and innovation vitality.

Clearly, breaking down ecological barriers and moving toward standardized capabilities is a crucial step for AI glasses to enter the mainstream market.

03

AI glasses face three major challenges in achieving widespread adoption

Although global AI glasses shipments have reached the tens of millions, they pale in comparison to smartphones' billions of units, indicating that AI glasses have not yet reached their true 'iPhone moment.'

This is largely because, while AI glasses offer a leap in user experience compared to traditional Bluetooth or VR glasses, they have not created revolutionary product value that can convince ordinary users to buy them.

Xiao Li, who purchased Li Auto's AI glasses, Livis, for their headrest speaker functionality, said, 'I already wear prescription glasses. Although Livis is relatively lightweight and has a long battery life, wearing them all day causes ear pain, far less comfortable than my prescription glasses.'

As a result, Xiao Li revealed that he only wears Li Auto's AI glasses, Livis, when driving and switches back to his regular prescription glasses at home or in the office.

Applying Yu Jun's (former Baidu VP and Chief Product Architect) product value formula, 'Product Value = (New Experience - Old Experience) - Migration Cost,' Li Auto's AI glasses, Livis, while creating unique ecological interconnection value for users, also increase migration costs by accommodating more components, leading Xiao Li to switch between AI glasses and regular prescription glasses.

It's worth noting that currently, only a portion of the Chinese population wears glasses daily, with many users not having the habit of wearing glasses. Considering that AI glasses have not yet fully convinced glasses wearers, persuading those who do not need glasses to use them voluntarily will undoubtedly be more challenging.

After in-depth experience with AI glasses, Farsight believes that for related products to become the core gateway of the next era, they must evolve simultaneously in three dimensions: hardware, functionality, and experience.

From a hardware perspective, AI glasses need to further reduce weight. Currently, the mainstream weight of AI glasses has been compressed to around 40g, which is lightweight enough but still too heavy compared to prescription glasses' approximately 20g. If AI glasses cannot convince nearsighted users to wear them for extended periods, they will struggle to reach a broader audience.

Image source: Rokid

Functionally, when developing AI glasses, tech companies should not rely on ecological advantages as competitive barriers but should instead achieve functional equality through open APIs. For example, in June 2025, Rokid's AI glasses partnered with Alipay to launch the 'glance-to-pay' function. Recently, Li Auto's AI glasses, Livis, also added support for Tesla vehicle control.

Image source: OpenAI

From an experience perspective, as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, 'Imagine if we could create an AI that is with you in any environment, serving you. This could be a very attractive direction for AI hardware development.'

AI glasses should not follow the path of traditional smart devices like phones, earphones, or action cameras but should instead explore exclusive 'killer' application scenarios by leveraging their advantages in wearability, always-on AI, and first-person perspective shooting.

Reviewing the history of technological development, no revolutionary product achieves success overnight. Even the iPhone underwent multiple iterations, evolving from an early experimental form into a smart terminal that reshaped the industry landscape.

Examining the AI glasses industry through this lens reveals its current stage more clearly. After nearly three years of industrial exploration, while AI glasses have not yet reached their true 'iPhone moment,' their rapidly climbing shipments and the entry of leading tech companies send a clear signal: AI glasses are not a false proposition but have the potential to become a trillion-dollar product.

With the push from tech giants, even if AI glasses cannot replace smartphones, they can embed themselves into users' daily lives in a more natural and low-threshold way, broadening the boundaries of 'human-computer interaction.'

Interactive Topic

Have you purchased AI glasses? Do you think they will become the gateway of the next era?

This article is original content from Farsight and is prohibited from reproduction without authorization.