Towards the end of 2025, AI glasses abruptly emerged as the most in-demand “hard currency” in the tech sphere. Their appeal didn't stem from having already revolutionized the world, but simply from their elusiveness.

As reported by Dawan News, a consumer pre-ordered the Quark AI Glasses S1 from the Quark Smart Devices Flagship Store on Douyin E-commerce on November 27. However, the order remains unshipped. The consumer mentioned, “Initially, customer service indicated delivery would occur between November 27 and December 3, but this was later revised to a 45-day rolling delivery schedule.”

As consumers grapple with delayed deliveries, a new policy quietly comes into effect. Starting in 2026, AI glasses will be officially included in China's national 3C digital subsidy program, entitling consumers to a 15% purchase subsidy, capped at 500 yuan. As the sole newly added category, the inclusion of smart glasses in the national subsidy directory highlights official acknowledgment and high expectations for the sector.

Is this the dawn of an AI hardware explosion, or merely another bubble frenzy?

Online and Offline: “A Single Pair Is Hard to Get”

The AI glasses market, long a niche segment, had remained lackluster for years. However, 2025 marked a significant turning point.

According to IDC, global smart glasses shipments exceeded 4.065 million units in the first half of 2025, representing a 64.2% year-on-year surge. Annual global shipments are projected to reach 12.05 million units, reflecting an 18.3% annual increase. The Chinese market stands out, with full-year shipments expected to surpass 2.75 million units—a staggering 107% year-on-year increase, ranking first globally.

The most evident sign of market enthusiasm is the widespread supply-demand imbalance across channels. On major e-commerce platforms, related products frequently sell out within seconds. Physical stores generally face stockouts, compelling consumers to endure lengthy pre-sale waits. In the secondary market, popular models command significant price premiums.

Take Quark AI Glasses as an example. According to Daxiang News, offline stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other cities have no inventory of Quark AI Glasses. Consumers must wait up to 45 days for delivery after placing an order. Online channels are equally constrained—the Quark AI Glasses S1, available on platforms like Tmall, Douyin, and JD.com, typically sells out within half an hour after daily restocking.

The severe supply-demand imbalance has spurred an active secondary market. On platforms like Xianyu, the average resale price for a used Quark AI Glasses S1 hovers around 4,000 yuan, noticeably higher than the official price. More notably, a short-term rental model has emerged, with daily rental rates ranging from 40 to 95 yuan.

The “hard-to-get” phenomenon of AI glasses reflects both market recognition driven by key technological breakthroughs and soaring industry expectations. While it underscores the enormous consumption potential of AI glasses, it also reveals that the industrial chain still faces significant challenges in scaling up supply and refining user experiences.

“Hundred-Glasses Battle” Begins: Breaking Through Won't Be Easy

AI glasses represent a blue ocean market, currently in a golden period of rapid growth. Well-sennXR predicts that annual AI glasses sales could exceed 55 million units within the next decade and reach a staggering 1.4 billion units by 2035. This attractive market growth has enticed companies from various sectors to enter the fray.

In China, the AI glasses market is already highly competitive. Tech giants like Alibaba, Xiaomi, Inmo, Thunderbird, Rokid, Li Auto, and Dreame Technology, along with vertical companies deeply rooted in the XR field, are all launching new products at a frenetic pace—“new releases every month, upgrades every week.”

For example: Inmo Technology unveiled its latest AI smart glasses, the INMO GO3, which deeply integrates AI and AR technologies. Xiaomi's AI glasses are positioned as “next-generation personal smart devices and on-the-go AI portals,” selling out within three days of launch, with sales nearing 50,000 units. Li Auto introduced its first AI glasses, the Livis, focusing on in-car scenario integration, enabling “glasses-based visualization” of navigation, calls, and information queries.

Overseas, international giants have already laid out their strategies, with equally fierce competition. Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses aim for 4–5 million units in annual sales. Google and Samsung have relaunched their smart glasses projects in partnership, while Apple has confirmed its product launch timeline, further intensifying the competition.

Quark AI Glasses have achieved initial success amid fierce competition. However, beneath the hype lie significant challenges—three major hurdles that also represent industry-wide bottlenecks.

First, production capacity constraints are unlikely to be resolved shortly. Despite official statements about “urgently expanding production,” the 45-day delivery window and sellouts within half an hour of daily restocking reveal supply chain management weaknesses. Even with an additional production line, if Quark fails to achieve stable deliveries by the first quarter of 2026, user patience may wear thin, risking reputational damage.

Second, product functionality faces “pseudo-demand” criticism. On platforms like “SMZDM,” users frequently raise the following issues: (1) Core features like navigation, photography, and voice assistants largely replicate smartphone capabilities, lacking innovation. (2) AR navigation overlays may obstruct vision, posing safety risks, while technical maturity remains early-stage, raising questions about practicality.

If Quark AI Glasses fail to iterate around genuine, high-frequency use cases, they risk being relegated to “novelty items” after initial trials. Industry data shows that typical 3C product return rates are usually below 15%, whereas leading AI glasses brands currently average 30–35% returns. On livestream e-commerce platforms like Douyin, this figure can reach 40–50%.

Third, the ecosystem moat remains unsecured. Unlike Apple's iOS-based closed ecosystem or Huawei's HarmonyOS-powered multi-device interconnection, Quark's reliance on Alibaba's ecosystem feels fragmented. Integrating services like Taobao, Gaode Maps, DingTalk, and Quark Search deeply into the glasses' operating system to create a seamless, smartphone-independent experience is crucial for transitioning from a hit product to a lasting success.

Amid a chaotic market with manufacturers vying for dominance and tech giants making full-scale entries, Quark AI Glasses' breakthrough is nothing short of a “high-stakes gamble.” Leveraging large model capabilities for differentiation and strategic marketing to ignite the market, Quark must still overcome three major hurdles—production capacity, user experience, and ecosystem development—to ultimately prevail in this “battle of titans.”

A Decisive Endurance Battle

The consumer electronics market at the end of 2025 is being disrupted by a small pair of glasses. In the short term, factors like production shortages and market speculation contribute to the “hard-to-get” phenomenon surrounding Quark AI Glasses. However, in the long run, AI glasses undoubtedly represent a crucial evolution in wearable devices.

The “Hundred-Glasses Battle” for the next generation of smart interaction interfaces has begun. Competition is shifting from superficial hardware specifications to a three-dimensional contest of ecosystem synergy, technological integration, and demand definition—a battle destined to be protracted and far-reaching.

At the ecosystem synergy level, the competition is fundamentally about gateway control. Just as iOS and Android dominated Mobile Internet access in the smartphone era through their operating systems, with super apps becoming service distribution hubs, AI glasses are now seen by industry giants as a new key to unlocking the “spatial internet” and “contextual intelligence” era.

In the future, whoever first achieves seamless integration of information, socialization, entertainment, office functions, and real-world environments on AI glasses will gain the authority to define the next generation of interaction paradigms.

In terms of technological integration, user experience hinges on the deep fusion of large models and hardware. The physical constraints of glasses demand that AI capabilities transition from cloud-based to “always-on edge computing.” This requires voice recognition, natural language understanding, environmental perception, lightweight graphics rendering, and other core technologies to achieve holistic design with specialized chips, sensors, and optical modules—from foundational architectures to system layers.

Demand definition poses the most challenging aspect of this battle. Future winners must not only meet existing needs but also create entirely new scenarios or elevate current experiences to a new level. This could manifest as hands-free real-time translation and navigation, holographic work interfaces overlaid on reality, or seamless scenario triggering linked to smart homes and autonomous vehicles.

In the long-term competition for AI smart glasses, only companies that solidly build a trifecta of advantages—“hardware foundation, ecosystem synergy, and technology-driven innovation”—will secure a leading position in the future smart interaction landscape. With numerous contenders vying for the same “piece of the pie,” Quark AI Glasses have little time left to break through.