The wave of AI hardware is coming.

This year, the duration of the shopping festival has once again set a new record. E - commerce platforms kicked off their promotions right after the Mid - Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, and the longest promotion will last until the evening of November 14th, an extremely long 30 - plus days.

Although this year has witnessed the "longest Double 11 in history", consumers generally feel that the atmosphere of Double 11 is not very strong.

In the view of Zhang Yi, CEO and Chief Analyst of iiMedia Research, in the past two or three years, the consumption driving force and incremental growth during Double 11 have not been obvious, and one of the reasons is the lack of product innovation. A major change during this year's "Double 11" is that emerging consumer electronics driven by AI are moving from the "geek" early - adopter stage to the mass market. Although the overall market has not yet exploded, it has shown a relatively fast growth rate and market potential.

JD.com's sales data also confirms this. According to information obtained by Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily from JD.com, during Double 11, the turnover of 3C digital AI products on JD.com increased by more than 100% year - on - year; AI tablets and AI large - screen mobile phones both ranked among the top 5 in terms of growth rate in the overall 3C digital category. Meanwhile, the C2M customization ratios of large - screen AI mobile phones and gaming laptops exceeded 30% and 50% respectively. In addition, the turnover of smart glasses increased by 346%.

Pan Xuefei, Research Director at IDC China, also told Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that in the fields of companion education and programming, robot products have shown rapid growth.

Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Cultivation and Opening of Scenarios to Promote the Large - scale Application of New Scenarios, which mentioned exploring the application scenarios of technological innovations such as the metaverse, virtual reality, intelligent computing power, and robots in fields such as office, socializing, consumption, and entertainment, and promoting the in - depth integration of the real economy and the digital economy.

Zhang Yi believes that, to some extent, this lays a foundation at the policy level for the innovation of AI intelligent products to a higher, broader, and deeper level.

Turnover of Smart Glasses Increased by 346%

JD.com data shows that during Double 11, the top 3 categories in terms of turnover growth rate in the 3C digital sector were smart glasses (346%), digital cameras (238%), and action cameras (220%).

A reporter from Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily saw on JD.com's hot - selling list of smart glasses that the top five were Xiaomi, ROKID, INMOGO3 by INMO Technology, TCL Thunderbird, and INMOGO2 by INMO Technology. Among them, Xiaomi's AI glasses showed that 2000 units were sold in 30 days, the total sales of multiple models of INMO glasses exceeded 1500 units, and the sales of multiple models of ROKID glasses exceeded 1000 units.

JD.com's real - time competition list for smart glasses during Double 11 shows that from October 9th to November 12th, in the field of smart glasses, Xiaomi, INMO, and ROKID ranked among the top 3. The Xiaodu glasses, which were just launched on November 10th, ranked 8th.

In the data of Tmall and Taobao, Alibaba's Quark AI glasses have an advantage. In the hot - selling list of XR devices, Quark AI glasses ranked first, followed by ROKID, TCL Thunderbird, XREA, and Xiaomi from 2nd to 5th.

Quark AI glasses started pre - sales at midnight on October 24th. The Tmall page shows that the current pre - sale volume has exceeded 5000 units.

Pan Xuefei, Research Director at IDC China, believes that overall, the AI glasses market was very active during this year's Double 11. From the supply side, multiple new products from companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, and Bolon started pre - sales during Double 11, and new products from brands such as Rokid, TCL Thunderbird, INMO, and Meizu were also launched intensively.

"From the sales performance, this activity is directly reflected in the consumer side. AI glasses have become one of the fastest - growing trending categories, and the turnover has shown several - fold year - on - year growth. We believe that the current active market supply, along with the continuous improvement of the ecosystem and the decline in prices, will jointly promote the wider popularization of smart glasses, and the entire smart glasses market still has huge growth potential in the future."

According to IDC's forecast, the shipment volume of the Chinese smart glasses market will reach 4.915 million units in 2026, a year - on - year increase of 72.7%.

Companion Education Robots Showed Fast Growth

In the field of robots and AI toys, 800 units of Songyan Xiaobumi were pre - sold on JD.com at its debut; the sales of Fuzozo increased by more than 25 times compared with June.

A reporter from Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily saw on JD.com's list of smart robots that the SenseTime Yuanluobo robot ranked 3rd, and the Unitree Go2 robot dog ranked 5th, with both selling more than 200 units within 15 days. In addition, the ropet AI pet robot, the Luka reading machine, etc. also had sales of more than 200 units.

In the AI toy list, the Fuzozo AI trendy toy ranked 2nd with sales of more than 1000 units, and the Ubtech Meng UU companion smart robot ranked 9th with sales of more than 200 units.

Pan Xuefei, Research Director at IDC China, believes that the consumer - end robot market is still concentrated in the education field. Especially in the fields of companion education and programming, robot products have shown rapid growth, such as programming robots and chess - related robots.

In the fields of AI toys and companion robots, Zhang Yi also said that the educational attribute is the main driving force for purchases. "Currently, the overall market of smart toys is growing relatively fast. In the past month or so during Double 11, products such as smart dialogue devices with built - in large models, dolls, AI programming robots, and smart microscopes have all performed well. It can be seen that combining entertainment with education and achieving a good balance between toys and educational tools is the main factor that makes consumers more willing to pay and generates market premium."

Transition from "Geek Early - Adopter" to Mass Market

Zhang Yi analyzed to Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that a major change during this year's Double 11 is that new consumer electronics categories driven by AI are transitioning from the "geek early - adopter" stage to the mass market. "Although it can't be said that the overall market has exploded, the growth is relatively significant."

Among them, smart glasses are mainly focused on application scenarios such as movie - watching, gaming, and mobile office. Robot dogs and companion robots are gradually extending from the laboratory and enterprise - level markets to middle - and high - income groups and technology enthusiasts. The market has shown strong demand for high - end products with a sense of technology, entertainment value, and emotional value. However, overall, price is still a major obstacle to their large - scale popularization.

In addition, as a relatively mature category, the sales of sweeping robots have been relatively stable. Its development is evolving from basic cleaning functions towards a fully automatic and maintenance - free direction, and continuously improving the product's automation level and user experience with the help of AI technology.

Looking at future development, AI/AR glasses will still be in a stage of rapid technological iteration. Currently, the functions they can achieve are relatively basic, and the applicable scenarios are also limited. The next development direction is to make them gradually transform from a 'phone companion' to a 'personal computing center'.

Zhang Yi believes that the key to the industry's explosion may lie in the emergence of killer - apps that cover both personal needs in socializing, gaming, and work, as well as enterprise - level applications. The core constraint in achieving this vision still lies in further breakthroughs in underlying technologies such as batteries and displays.

The field of robots and robot dogs is transitioning towards entertainment companions and educational tools based on emotional connections. For AI toys, the key is to integrate rigid educational needs with flexible entertainment experiences, thereby reshaping the children's entertainment and education industries, and the future market has a relatively high ceiling.

Overall, the sales performance of AI - related hardware during this year's "Double 11" is just the beginning.

"As AI technology continues to empower hardware products, in the future, not only the consumer electronics field will be affected, but almost all electrical products have the opportunity to be re - defined. For the consumer electronics industry, in the next 10 to 15 years, AI - empowered hardware will be a growth engine with great imagination space." Zhang Yi said.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Science and Technology Innovation Daily", author: Huang Xinyi. Republished by 36Kr with permission.