Vivo entwickelt Head-Mounted Displays, Quark entwickelt AI-Brillen. Wer kann das Schicksal des Scheiterns von AI-Hardware durchbrechen?

There are still companies that are "regardless of all risks" entering the market for Head - Mounted Displays (HMDs), even though Apple and ByteDance have already failed in this area.

On August 21, vivo presented its first Head - Mounted Display, the vivo Vision Explore Edition, which is touted as the "world's lightest spatial computing device".

In the field of Mixed - Reality (MR) headsets, Apple presented its first headset, the Vision Pro, on June 6, 2023. However, the sales figures have not shown the expected momentum so far. Mark Gurman has pointed out that the sales figures of the Apple Vision Pro are in a "quandary" and estimates that the shipments are "well below 1 million units".

In the past two years, the popularity of lightweight AI glasses led by Meta has surpassed that of MR headsets and has developed into a trend in the technology field. Nevertheless, vivo has decided to present the vivo Vision Explore Edition. Why is vivo going against the trend?

1. Meta's AI glasses are a hit, but an isolated case

According to recent statements from EssilorLuxottica, a partner of Meta and a glasses giant, the sales of Ray - Ban Meta in the first half of 2025 increased by more than three times compared to the previous year. According to the latest data from the research institution Counterpoint, the global sales of smart glasses in the first half of 2025 increased by 110% compared to the previous year. Meta has increased its market share to 73%.

Susan Li, the Chief Financial Officer of Meta, has made it clear that "the 5% annual growth rate this quarter is mainly due to the increased sales of Ray - Ban Meta smart glasses". In the second quarter of 2025, Meta's Reality Labs achieved a revenue of $370 million, which represents a 5% increase compared to the previous year.

After the success of Meta Rayban, experts have analyzed that Meta's success is based on the strong Meta ecosystem behind the AI glasses, including the support for social - media livestreams on Facebook and Instagram, as well as video calls via WhatsApp.

Meta's success has stimulated the Chinese market. Currently, tech giants such as Baidu, Xiaomi, and Alibaba have already developed their own AI glasses. Even ByteDance, which acquired the VR startup PICO for about 9 billion yuan, has stopped the development of Head - Mounted Displays and instead bet on AI glasses.

On the opening day of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2025, Alibaba presented its first in - house AI glasses, the Quark AI Glasses. Song Gang, the head of the terminal business of Alibaba Smart Information Business Group, explained: "AI glasses will definitely become the sensory interface for the next - generation human - machine interaction. This will trigger a rapid increase in individual data volume and has the potential to become the most important mobile access point for individuals after the smartphone."

Similar to Meta, the Quark AI Glasses presented by Alibaba are based on an extensive ecosystem: They are equipped with the Qwen large - scale model and the latest AI capabilities of Quark and support numerous scenarios such as navigation via Gaode Maps, one - click payment via Alipay, price comparison on Taobao, travel planning via Flight Manager, and intelligent music recommendations from NetEase Cloud Music.

"We want to redefine the standards for AI glasses: A real personal super - assistant, an intelligent terminal that can be used around the clock in various scenarios, and at the same time a beautiful and comfortable pair of glasses." So Song Gang, the head of the terminal business of Alibaba Smart Information Business Group, has made it clear. However, if the Quark AI Glasses only rely on Alibaba's own applications and do not have an ecosystem for third - party developers, the vision of an "AI super - assistant" remains questionable.

On the other hand, Alibaba's C - to - C AI business has significantly lagged behind in the competition with ByteDance, Tencent, and Baidu compared to its B - to - B activities. According to data from QuestMobile, only Alipay's Ma Xiaocai ranks 4th on the list of AI applications with the largest number of users. However, Ma Xiaocai is a digital business tool for business customers and enterprises, which helps with financial management, marketing promotion, and customer service.

In typical AI applications for end - consumers, Alibaba's Tongyi and its AI search (Quark) are still lagging behind the offerings of Baidu, Tencent, and ByteDance.

Although Quark, the core product of Alibaba Smart Information Business Group, has transformed from a "film - streaming and cloud - storage tool with college - admission assistance" to an "AI jack - of - all - trades", it is still mainly perceived by people as a search or storage tool. It is unknown what proportion the "really active users" who use the AI functions account for in the large monthly user number.

Quark offers a variety of functions, including a search engine, cloud storage, scanning, and college - admission assistance, but it lacks a clear positioning as a conversational generative AI like DeepSeek. As a result, it cannot effectively engage users. For example, in the summer of 2024, Quark reached a monthly usage peak of nearly 200 million users, but the average monthly user number is only half of that. Therefore, users also scoff at Quark as "hot for a month once a year because of the college - admission exams".

It is obvious that Alibaba's C - to - C business is in trouble. The Quark AI Glasses also seem to focus on the B - to - B market. According to a report from Caixin, the "enterprise version" of the Quark AI Glasses has started internal testing. DingTalk will summarize functions such as meeting notes and external professional consultations and allow them to be subscribed to on a per - user - seat basis under an annual subscription model.

Wu Jia, the vice - president of Alibaba and the CEO of Quark, has made it clear: "We don't make money from selling glasses." He also revealed that currently 3,000 brands are already connected to the "glasses rack" and that the number of SKUs is expected to exceed 1 million by the end of the year. The actual source of profit for the Quark AI Glasses lies in the commission for the brokered business: Alibaba charges a 2% technology service fee for each successful "glasses price comparison", and Alipay takes a 0.3% transaction fee for each "one - click payment".

In fact, since the second half of 2024, various companies such as Rokid, Baidu, and Shanjikeji have presented their own AI glasses, thus triggering a "battle of the hundred glasses". Shanjikeji, a company originally specialized in power banks, has switched to AI glasses. Its first product, the "Shanji AI Selfie Glasses", was so popular at its first launch for only 999 yuan that it sold out immediately. But then there were numerous complaints about the "disappointing camera function" and "mis - installed speakers".

The market for AI glasses, which is regarded by the industry as one of the best scenarios for the implementation of AI, is very competitive. Even the old jewelry business Lao Feng Xiang has plunged into this market. However, consumers regard AI glasses more as a "novelty to try" rather than a "necessary product" or something they would be willing to pay for.

Let's take the once - successful Xiaomi AI Glasses as an example. According to data from Chanmama, the sales of Xiaomi AI Glasses in the TikTok flagship store had a high start but then continuously declined. On the first sales day, it reached a peak of 5,000 to 7,500 units per day. By August 18, the daily sales figures had dropped to 100 to 250 units.

According to statistics from the technology media XR Vison, the average daily sales of Xiaomi AI Glasses dropped from 6,000 units on July 1 to 3,555 units on July 6, and the return rate could be up to 40%. On social platforms such as Xiaohongshu, users have also complained about the "plastic - like appearance", the "slow and stupid Xiao Ai assistant", and the "freezing" of the glasses.

The situation of Chinese AI glasses makes us wonder how we should evaluate AI glasses. At the same time, it is also important to question whether the success of Meta AI glasses really lies in the AI function. It is remarkable that Meta was the first technology manufacturer to integrate the Llama large - scale model into glasses and add AI interaction functions. But Meta not only paid attention to the intelligence of the glasses but also won the fashion glasses brand Ray - Ban as a partner. The greatest advantage of the Ray - Ban Meta lies in its fashionable appearance and comfort, while the camera and AI functions seem more like ornaments. The success of the Ray - Ban Meta is based on the accurate capture of consumers' demand for modern accessories. The affordable price of $299 and the selection of over a hundred frame and lens combinations meet consumers' needs for a fashionable and practical accessory for daily use.

According to a recent report from Mark Gurman, a journalist from Bloomberg, Meta will officially present its first smart glasses with a display next month. It is reported that the right lens will have a micro - display for showing application notifications, and users can operate it via a "neural wristband" that is also compatible with the Orion AR prototype.

One problem that AI glasses face is whether they can really replace the smartphone. So far, the smartphone is still the dominant all - day - usable end - device, regardless of how much AI glasses emphasize their intelligence and battery life. According to data from IDC, the sales of smart glasses in China in the first quarter of 2025 were about 494,000 units, which represents a 116.1% increase compared to the previous year. In the same period, the sales of smartphones were 71.6 million units. Although AI glasses can enable simple interactions via voice with the support of AI technology, they are currently not able to offer independent use "without a smartphone" and are therefore rather useless.

Large technology companies may still bet on AI glasses to establish them as a hardware platform for AI. But so far, the payment and navigation functions of AI glasses still strongly depend on the smartphone ecosystem. At least in the near future, AI glasses cannot offer independent use "without a smartphone". They are more of a "companion" or "helper" rather than a "replacement" for the smartphone. According to a survey by iiMedia Research, the acceptance rate of smart glasses among consumers is 40.45%, which lags behind that of smartwatches and bracelets.

2. vivo is making headsets, but so far no company has been successful

What about headsets? Compared to AI glasses, MR headsets can establish a better connection between digital information and the real world due to their integrated display.

But the future of MR headsets is unclear. In November 2023, the well - known VR company PICO held an internal meeting, adjusted the company structure, and laid off about 300 employees, which accounts for about 23% of the workforce. Zhou Hongwei, the president of PICO, explained: "In the past, we overestimated the development of the market and the industry, and the actual situation did not meet our expectations."

On August 21, vivo presented its first Head - Mounted Display, the vivo Vision Explore Edition, which is touted as the "world's lightest spatial computing device". The vivo Vision Explore Edition is equipped with the second - generation Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ chip. It is reported that the Snapdragon XR2+ has a one - piece design, which has increased the CPU frequency by 20% and the GPU frequency by 15%, resulting in a 25% performance increase and a 50% energy - efficiency increase. The AI performance has improved eight - fold, and it supports a maximum display resolution of 4.3K at 90 FPS per eye as well as the parallel use of more than 12 cameras.

When Qualcomm presented this chip in January 2024, its goal was...