By Wang Huiying

Edited by Ziye

As 2026 draws to a close, the AI glasses sector shows no sign of cooling down.

Rokid released three new products in one go at the end of October; RayNeo officially announced its fourth-generation full-color AI glasses on the same day; the Qwen N1 series entered mass production and delivery in October; and with earlier cross-sector entries by companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi, domestic AI glasses have ushered in a veritable "hundred-mirror battle."

From a data perspective, growth is proceeding on multiple fronts. Counterpoint Research data shows that in the first half of 2026, global AI glasses shipments increased by 263% year on year.

Buoyed by the narrative that they will become the next-generation human-computer interaction entry point, AI glasses have been endowed with the imaginative space to replace smartphones and have become a hot track in AI consumer hardware.

The excitement is real, but if one shifts attention away from the frequency of new product launches and shipment volumes and looks instead at the pair of glasses on users' noses, a different set of numbers comes into view.

Data released by RUNTO Technology shows that in the first half of 2026, the industry return rate was as high as 30%-70%. Many users still experience dizziness and discomfort when wearing AI glasses.

At the summer launch event in May this year, RayNeo CEO Li Hongwei acknowledged an awkward reality for the industry: over the past two years, the industry launched more than 200 new AI functions, but long-term user usage was less than 6%; the remaining 94% of users still stuck to the most basic functions such as asking about the weather, stocks, and news.

Behind the seemingly flourishing market, retention and repeat purchases remain major difficulties. Amid involution within an industry of million-unit scale, privacy compliance is the sword of Damocles hanging over players and has also kept AI glasses from crossing the threshold of daily wear.

The "iPhone moment" of AI glasses seems farther away than in the capital story.

1. Hundred-mirror battle, no true "No. 1"

The AI glasses market in October 2026 was pushed to a climax by a dense wave of new product launches.

On October 27, Rokid launched three new AI glasses products covering different price points in one go, from a screenless lightweight entry model to a full-color binocular display flagship, and simultaneously launched a companion interaction ring.

Rokid Glasses 2, image source: Rokid WeChat official account

On the same day, RayNeo officially announced its fourth-generation full-color AI glasses "RayNeo iO+," featuring on-device large models and extreme weight reduction, with an appearance that emphasizes daily wearability.

On October 16, INMO Tech released INMO GO3; Huawei also completed deep HarmonyOS ecosystem adaptation and AI capability OTA upgrades in October...

Earlier, on October 13, Alibaba's Qwen released the N1 and N1 Pro AI glasses and AI clip-on earphones, all equipped with a heterogeneous platform of three chips: Snapdragon AR1, BES, and Himax.

Within just half a month, nearly ten new products were unveiled in a concentrated manner, pushing the atmosphere of the "hundred-mirror battle" to a climax. If the timeline is extended to the past year, the pace of new AI glasses releases can be described as an arms race.

Looking back at the mainstream new products released by players over the past 10 months, it is not hard to find that commonalities at the product level are more striking than differences.

On-device large model or on-device AI Agent capabilities have become standard at launch events, and full-color MicroLED optical waveguide has become the collective direction of this round of high-end new products.

In this round of new releases, Rokid Color and RayNeo iO+ coincidentally made "full color" a core selling point. In 2025, monocular information prompts were the mainstream; in 2026, binocular displays have become standard for mid-to-high-end models, upgrading from monochrome text prompts to full-color video playback.

In addition, lightweight design continues to be pushed to the extreme, and the weight race is intensifying. The Rokid Style screenless model weighs 38.5 grams, Li Auto Livis about 36 grams, and RayNeo V4 is controlled at 38 grams; mainstream display models are also generally kept under 70 grams.

Players are desperately stuffing chips, batteries, cameras, speakers, and optical modules into the temples, with the goal of making AI glasses look and feel more like an ordinary pair of glasses.

Technologically, multi-chip heterogeneous solutions have begun to spread. Players have started using chips with different process nodes and architectures to handle imaging, daily tasks, and low-power sensing separately, attempting to find a balance among computing power, power consumption, and battery life.

Undeniably, supply chain maturity and technology diffusion naturally bring about configuration convergence. The problem is that when all players use similar supply chains and tell similar stories within similar time windows, brand competition will only become fiercer.

Capital is the accelerant of this competition. Incomplete statistics from RUNTO Technology show that in the first half of 2026, there were at least 64 financing, M&A, and strategic investment deals in the global smart glasses industry chain, with total disclosed amounts of about 9 billion yuan.

More importantly, major companies are everywhere. Huawei, Xiaomi, and Honor have all launched AI glasses under their own brands, and automakers such as Li Auto and NIO have also entered the sector across boundaries, using glasses as an extension of their in-car ecosystems.

The frenzy of capital for AI glasses is essentially a bet on the birth of the "next smartphone." According to the industry narrative logic at this stage, with the continued implementation of AI technology, AI glasses are widely regarded as the most likely next-generation human-computer interaction entry point.

More lively than new product launches and capital bets is the competition among brands for "market No. 1." Randomly open any AI glasses launch event, and you can hear claims of "No. 1."

Behind the seemingly contradictory rankings is the intensity of industry competition.

At present, AI glasses are still in an early stage where no absolute leader has emerged. "Industry No. 1" is both an endorsement of brand strength and a core bargaining chip for gaining supply chain pricing power, capital favor, and user mindshare. Therefore, brands coincidentally choose the statistical dimension most favorable to themselves to define the battlefield, turning differences in scope into a means of competition.

XREAL, citing the iResearch "2025 Global AR Glasses Industry Research Report," uses global consumer AR glasses with display sales revenue as the statistical scope and claims to have ranked first in the global market for three consecutive years;

RayNeo, based on IDC and Counterpoint data, states that in the first half of 2026 RayNeo ranked first in global AR glasses shipments, and in the Chinese market, RayNeo has maintained the No. 1 AR glasses sales position for five consecutive years;

Rokid, citing NielsenIQ retail monitoring data for the first three quarters of 2026, states that in the AI display smart glasses segment, Rokid has ranked first in the Chinese market for three consecutive quarters;

Xiaomi, citing the Counterpoint 2026 Q1 market tracking report, claims first place with a 28% share under the shipment scope of all categories of smart glasses (including screenless audio glasses).

Viewed from another perspective, the true No. 1 seems not to have appeared. At present, no brand can simultaneously establish absolute advantages across all categories, all channels, and all regions, nor can anyone completely pull ahead through overwhelming product experience.

2. Privacy storms and route gaming: how far are AI glasses from daily use?

More worthy of deep reflection than who is truly No. 1 is that after all this fierce hundred-mirror battle, no brand has been able to completely leave competitors behind through overwhelming product experience, and the industry as a whole is stuck at the critical leap from novelty to daily use.

The battle for share is fierce, but it cannot conceal a more core reality: AI glasses have so far failed to truly enter public spaces, nor have they become devices that the general public is willing to wear all day.

In the competition among brands over AI perception capabilities, high-definition cameras, first-person shooting, and ambient sound pickup have long become standard features, but they have also made privacy risk the sword of Damocles hanging over the industry.

In June this year, Rokid's "secret filming" incident brought this risk nakedly before the public for the first time.

At the time, netizens found in Rokid's official user community that a user wearing the brand's smart glasses secretly filmed flight attendants on a plane and publicly posted the video. In addition, the community contained a large amount of content filmed of passersby in public places such as subways, parks, and shopping malls, most without the consent of the people involved, with faces clearly recognizable.

The incident quickly escalated, not only plunging Rokid into a public opinion storm but also branding the entire AI glasses industry with the controversial label of "secret filming tool."

In fact, the privacy dilemma of AI glasses is essentially an inherent contradiction between feature competition and compliance requirements, and also a common dilemma for the entire industry.

At a time of product homogenization, perception capability is the core lever for brands to create differentiation. RayNeo V4 upgraded its camera module and stabilization algorithm to strengthen first-person shooting and on-device visual recognition; Rokid focuses on POV shooting and object recognition; Xiaomi connects the camera with payments and smart home control to enable quick interaction such as "look and scan to pay."

RayNeo V4, image source: RayNeo WeChat official account

The clearer the camera, the more sensitive the sound pickup, and the richer the AI recognition scenarios, the more prominent the product selling points. But precisely these core capabilities constitute the source of privacy risk. Without a camera, real-time translation, image recognition, and scene perception would be impossible; with a camera, the hidden dangers of secret filming, abusive filming, and data leaks are also hard to avoid.

Manufacturers have not failed to attempt a balance. After the storm, Rokid quickly issued a statement, cleaned up violating content, banned the account involved, and emphasized that products are standard-equipped with a hardware-level shooting indicator light that is forced to turn on during recording.

But this protection system was easily breached by reality and trades off against experience: if the indicator light is too conspicuous, it affects wearing aesthetics; if the prompt sound is too loud, it disturbs others; and fully on-device processing weakens AI capabilities. The industry has yet to find an optimal solution.

As Rokid founder Zhu Mingming recently said in a media interview: "Privacy and protection in the AI glasses field are a contest between spear and shield, and this is a proposition the industry must face directly. What companies can do is maximize the cost of making mistakes."

Put more plainly, the multiple-choice question of privacy protection directly determines whether AI glasses can enter daily life, and as long as consensus is not reached, the industry will forever be stuck in involution within a niche circle.

If the privacy controversy is the external shackle preventing AI glasses from reaching the masses, optical display, as the core of AI glasses, still has no unified optimal solution. Brands betting on different routes are essentially making different trade-offs among image quality, weight, and cost.

RayNeo is deeply engaged in diffractive optical waveguide + MicroLED self-developed optical engines, controlling costs through high yield and focusing on cost-effectiveness and mass production capability in the consumer market; XREAL takes BirdBath + Micro-OLED viewing glasses as its base, rapidly scaling up with mature solutions while gradually upgrading toward optical waveguide routes; Rokid adopts a dual-line layout across price segments, using BirdBath for entry models to lower the threshold and diffractive optical waveguide for flagship models to reach the high end; INMO adheres to an integrated lightweight route, continuously reducing volume on the basis of monochrome diffractive optical waveguide, emphasizing the form advantage of daily wear.

But no route is perfect. Although diffractive optical waveguide is thin, light, and easy to mass-produce, its light efficiency is generally only 10%-20%, resulting in poor visibility under strong outdoor light; the BirdBath solution has stable image quality and controllable cost, but is relatively bulky, with serious front light leakage, making it difficult for its appearance to blend into daily life; high-end geometric optical waveguide offers balanced experience but, due to complex processes and high cost, has always struggled to enter the mass consumer market.

The inherent limitations of technology routes translate directly into users' daily pain points. Dizziness and visual fatigue are the most common feedback. Because of the visual difference between the displayed image and the real environment, plus insufficient pupil distance adaptation accuracy, many users experience dizziness and eye strain after wearing the glasses for half an hour.

Poor outdoor visibility, 3-5 hours of battery life, and nose pressure caused by a forward center of gravity all make all-day wear a luxury. These fragmented but high-frequency experience problems are precisely the key factors preventing AI glasses from breaking out of their niche.

Data from the "2026-2027 White Paper on Trends in China's AI Glasses Industry" released by iiMedia Research shows that the main consumers of AI glasses are AI enthusiasts and technology early adopters, accounting for 32.5% and 32.2% respectively, together exceeding 60%.

On one hand, the trust barrier erected by privacy scandals means AI glasses will always face acceptance controversies in public settings such as commuting, venues, and offices. On the other, experience compromises caused by route gaming mean products cannot support all-day, multi-scenario daily wear. With these internal and external dilemmas intertwined, AI glasses still struggle to truly enter ordinary households.

3. Difficult commercialization and low repurchase rates: AI glasses have yet to usher in their "iPhone moment"

Over the past year, there is no denying the heat around the AI glasses sector.

New product iterations are accelerating, financing continues to rise, and major companies are entering the fray from across sectors; the supply side is almost fully heated up. But peel away the shell of hype and look at the real market size, profit model, and user retention, and the slowness and weakness of commercialization are equally clear.

RUNTO Technology online monitoring shows that in July 2026, smart glasses sales on the three major platforms of JD.com, Tmall, and Douyin totaled 74,000 units, down 15.3% year on year and down 20.9% month on month.

The global market tells the same story. According to RUNTO Technology estimates, Meta's total smart glasses shipment expectation for the year is about 9 million units, firmly ranking first globally, but its main volume products remain audio and camera models without displays.

Compared with the hundreds-of-millions annual shipment volume of earphones and smartwatches, AI glasses remain in a niche market of 100,000 to 1 million units. The seemingly fierce share competition looks more like involution in a small pond.

More alarming is the slowdown in growth momentum. IDC data shows that in the second quarter of 2026, domestic smart glasses shipments were about 611,000 units, down 8.0% year on year, showing negative growth for the first time.

The continuous price war in 2026 has further intensified profit pressure. As leading brands push AI glasses down to the 2,000-yuan price segment and entry-level audio AI glasses plunge below 1,000 yuan, the industry's overall average price continues to decline.

According to estimates in an AI glasses industry chain report released by Guotai Haitong, the hardware gross margin of domestic consumer brand complete devices is about 15%-20%. After deducting channel commissions, marketing spending, R&D, and after-sales expenses, most leading brands are near the break-even line.

XREAL, as an industry leader, illustrates the problem even better. According to disclosures in its Hong Kong stock prospectus, the company's revenue in 2025 was 516 million yuan, up 30.8% year on year, and gross margin had risen to 35.2%, significantly higher than the industry average, but adjusted net loss for the full year was 250 million yuan, with the core of the loss stemming from R&D investment and global channel construction expenditure.

Image source: XREAL WeChat official account

Leading companies, relying on product structure optimization, can only narrow losses; the profit pressure on mid-tier brands under the price war can be imagined.

Industrial and cultural tourism projects deployed by Rokid, INMO, and others are mostly customized development with dispersed demand and long delivery cycles. They are more of a cash flow supplement and cannot support the commercial imagination of the consumer track. Even a global giant like Meta has not yet established a monetization path for value-added services beyond hardware, and the entire industry has still not found a clear second profit curve.

More fundamental than profitability is the "novelty trap" on the user side. As mentioned above, the usage rate of diversified functions of AI glasses is not high, and the more critical issue behind this is insufficient wearing time.

A survey in the "2026-2027 White Paper on Trends in China's AI Glasses Industry" by iiMedia Research shows that domestic AI glasses consumers' usage frequency is concentrated in the medium-frequency range of 1-2 times per week, accounting for 37.8%; followed by 3-5 times per week, accounting for 28.4%; the proportion of users who wear them at high frequency every day is extremely low.

High sales, low retention, and short wearing time—such a user structure naturally affects the commercialization process of AI glasses. After all, without sufficient usage duration, subsequent monetization such as advertising, value-added services, and ecosystem expansion loses its foundation.

Many investors compare AI glasses to the iPhone and look forward to the industry ushering in an "iPhone moment," but the business logic of the two is fundamentally different.

When the iPhone was born, mobile phones were already a must-have product for everyone, and it completed an experience-upgrade replacement; AI glasses, however, must create from zero a new demand for daily wear. The difficulty of creation is far greater than that of replacement, which is also the core reason why breakthroughs in commercialization have been slow.

A notable change this year is that, in the face of commercialization difficulties, players have begun to break away from the old path of stacking features and explore new directions for breakthroughs, with the core trend being extension toward personal AI Agent scenarios.

Rokid positions its glasses as an entry point for a portable AI assistant and has launched native Agent functions, supporting first-person-view schedule management, information reminders, and scenario-based proactive services, attempting to turn the glasses from a passive query tool into a proactive portable Agent;

RayNeo Innovation focuses on office scenarios and builds conference Agent capabilities, enabling real-time multilingual transcription, automatic outline generation, and to-do synchronization, strengthening its irreplaceability in business scenarios;

INMO, meanwhile, has partnered with large-model manufacturers to launch an AR-native Agent, supporting integrated triggering of real-scene navigation, object recognition, and real-time translation, exploring a new form of AI services under the first-person view.

Image source: INMO Technology WeChat official account

In addition, deepening ecosystem integration is also a common choice. Huawei and Xiaomi rely on their phone and smart home ecosystems to connect interactions between glasses and all-scenario devices; automakers such as Li Auto and NIO use glasses as an extension of the in-car ecosystem to create an immersive in-car experience.

However, these attempts are still in the early exploratory stage, have not yet formed a phenomenal must-have scenario, and have not fundamentally boosted wearing time and user retention. To achieve a commercialization breakthrough, AI glasses ultimately still have to answer the simplest question: "Why would users wear them every day?"

The hundred-glasses battle will eventually come to an end, and the one left standing will not be the product with the most features, but the one users are truly willing to wear every day. From competing on specs to returning to experience, from fighting for shipments to increasing wearing time, from telling stories to making the business model work, players need more patience.