After leaving Smartisan and ByteDance, Wu Dezhou launched AI sports glasses ahead of Meta | 36 individuals emerged.

Emergence is a key phenomenon in the wave of generative AI. When the scale of the model expands to a critical point, AI will demonstrate human - like intelligence, capable of understanding, learning, and even creating.

"Emergence" is also happening in the real world. As the silicon - based civilization is on the verge of breaking out, entrepreneurs and creators in the AI field are using their wisdom and minds to light up the long journey towards achieving AGI.

At the juncture of the alternation of old and new productive forces, "Intelligent Emergence" launches a new column called "36 People of Emergence". Through conversations with key figures in the industry, we will record the new thinking at this stage.

 

Interview | Wang Fangyu, Yang Xuan

Written by | Wang Fangyu

Edited by | Su Jianxun

Wu Dezhou, whose ancestral home is in Ningde, Fujian, has the spirit of "loving to fight and daring to win" that is typical of Fujian people. In the past decade, his roles have changed from the person in charge of the product line of Huawei Honor, to the vice - president of hardware R & D at Smartisan Technology, and then to the president of the New Stone Laboratory at ByteDance. However, the spark of entrepreneurship in his heart has always been burning.

In 2022, Wu Dezhou left ByteDance and founded the smart glasses company "Salute to the Unknown", stepping into the same new trend as his former partner Luo Yonghao.

The vice - president of Smartisan Technology was the most well - known role of Wu Dezhou to the public. It has been nearly five years since the release of Smartisan's last mobile phone, but there are still users leaving messages on Wu Dezhou's Weibo to talk about the old products of Smartisan.

This experience has also had a subtle influence on Wu Dezhou. As the vice - president of Smartisan Technology, he was mainly responsible for product R & D, supply chain, and operations - related work. He learned how to run a startup, that is, to achieve satisfactory results with relatively limited funds and resources, and how to deal with investment institutions.

Wu Dezhou, the founder of Salute to the Unknown.       Image source: Authorized by the enterprise

On the day of the interview with Intelligent Emergence, Wu Dezhou was wearing a simple blue cycling T - shirt. He said that he had just started cycling recently. In order to better understand the needs of users, he had been cycling every day for more than half a year. He has lost a lot of weight and has also led the product managers in the company to cycle together.

Cycling and sports are the core scenarios that "Salute to the Unknown" focuses on.

Different from AI glasses brands such as Thunderbird Innovation, AnkerMake, and Rokid, which target general scenarios, "Salute to the Unknown" has chosen a vertical sports scenario and launched a new sports technology brand, BleeqUp. Its first AI sports glasses, the BleeqUp Ranger, are a vertical - scenario product specially designed for outdoor sports such as cycling and hiking. They will be launched overseas at the end of June.

The first AI glasses of BleeqUp not only look similar to regular cycling glasses in appearance but also have many differentiated designs for cycling:

To get a better photo - taking perspective, the camera of the glasses is placed in the middle instead of on the sides; physical buttons are designed for taking photos and videos instead of the regular sliding gestures; to enable users to hear clearly during high - speed cycling, double the number of speakers are equipped; and the video - recording function can be automatically triggered when a dangerous moment such as a sudden brake or a collision is detected, leaving key evidence for subsequent accident handling and analysis.

It is worth mentioning that Meta also plans to jointly create a co - branded AI sports glasses product with the well - known sports glasses brand Oakley, which is expected to be launched next year. BleeqUp has preempted Meta in launching AI sports shooting glasses. The two types of glasses focus on the same scenario, have cameras in the middle, and are equipped with similar AI detection functions.

The first AI glasses of BleeqUp.    Image source: Authorized by the enterprise

Wu Dezhou believes that AI glasses for general scenarios are within the reach of mobile phone manufacturers, and it is difficult for startups to compete with large companies. This is not only because mobile phone manufacturers are wealthy and have years of imaging technology accumulation but also because they can access the permissions of their mobile phone applications, control the entrance to the AI experience, and have an "absolute advantage."

In Wu Dezhou's future vision, in the general scenario, AI glasses will become an individual's all - day intelligent assistant. If they cannot access all the permissions of the mobile phone, such as booking air tickets, ordering takeaways, or recording meeting minutes, the user experience of AI glasses will be greatly affected.

Although mobile phone manufacturers do not have a strong presence in the current AI glasses market, in Wu Dezhou's view, it doesn't matter whether mobile phone manufacturers enter the market half a year earlier or later. "When the industry enters the explosive period, the competition of user experience is essentially the competition of full - stack capabilities. In this regard, mobile phone manufacturers have a crushing structural advantage."

In this context, AI glasses for vertical scenarios are one of the few opportunities for startups.

Wu Dezhou cited the example of Garmin sports watches: Although mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple and Huawei have launched sports watches, Garmin watches can still firmly occupy a place in the smart watch market with their differentiated and scenario - based functions and designs. The choice of Salute to the Unknown is to become the "Garmin" in the field of smart glasses.

2025 is regarded as the first year of AI glasses in the industry. Nearly a hundred brands will launch products, triggering the "Battle of a Hundred Glasses." In this melee, there are consumer electronics manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Samsung, and Lenovo, technology giants such as ByteDance and Baidu Xiaodu, and emerging startups such as Thunderbird Innovation and Li Weike.

In Wu Dezhou's view, in the "Battle of a Hundred Glasses," the core competitiveness of Salute to the Unknown is not the first - mover advantage, nor the consumer electronics experience of the team; instead, it is the choice of scenarios, the understanding of scenarios and users, and the continuous iteration of product experience.

"The selection of product functions and specifications is all for the sports users. As the product continues to iterate, I believe that we will understand sports users better and better, and finally achieve the best product experience and occupy the users' minds in terms of brand. This will be our core barrier." Wu Dezhou said to "Intelligent Emergence."

The following is the edited transcript of the conversation between Intelligent Emergence and Wu Dezhou, the founder of Salute to the Unknown:

Users' willingness to wear is the "1", and the functions and scenarios behind are the "0s"

Intelligent Emergence: Why did you choose to make smart glasses after leaving ByteDance?

Wu Dezhou: When I left Huawei in 2016, my goal was clear - to start a business. So, I joined Smartisan Technology. Strictly speaking, Smartisan was the first place where I truly participated in entrepreneurship. Although the company had already taken shape at that time and was not in the stage of starting from scratch, it was still an important starting point for my entrepreneurship.

I also wanted to start a business when I left ByteDance in 2022. When choosing the entrepreneurial direction, I had the following considerations. First, I hoped that the future space of the track would be large enough; second, it should be a track that I liked and the team was good at, and most of the past experience and accumulation could be reused.

I have been working on mobile phones for nearly 20 years. Mobile phones are the entrance to the mobile Internet era. But I believe that the next biggest computing platform will be smart glasses (including AI, XR, and AR). The space of this track is large enough, so I started my two brands, an AR glasses brand called ARknovv and a sports technology brand called BleeqUp, which focuses on vertical sports scenarios.

Intelligent Emergence: The AR and XR tracks have been quite tortuous in the past few years. It can be said to be a bloodbath. How do you view the risks of the track at that time?

Wu Dezhou: Regarding the current development of the AR and VR industries, it is more appropriate to say that the market is weeding out homogeneous products rather than "being strewn with corpses." New technologies all have a development process. I still firmly believe that smart glasses will be the biggest next - generation interactive entrance in the future. You may have noticed that many mobile phone companies are now starting to layout products in the form of glasses.

XR is a technology that can interact with space. It can only be said that it is a bit ahead of its time. Especially, the display technology is not mature enough, resulting in the performance of products not meeting the requirements of a general - purpose smart hardware with high demand. However, it has demand in some vertical scenarios. I judge that AI glasses will enter the consumer - level scenario more quickly and explode faster than XR glasses.

Intelligent Emergence: Why will AI glasses explode faster?

Wu Dezhou: The key is that the experience of AI glasses has exceeded the critical point of consumers' acceptance. Now, the wearing comfort is close to that of ordinary glasses, and users are willing to use them for a long time. At the same time, they can replace some electronic devices in terms of functions - this product logic holds.

For example, with the first - generation products we made before, people may not have worn them all the time. As long as users are not willing to wear them, all the planned scenarios behind will not work. If the "1" in front is missing, all the following are "0s."

I judge that the iteration speed of AI glasses will far exceed expectations. In the next one to two years, there will definitely be a blockbuster product with annual sales of over 20 million, and it is even likely to exceed the current global sales of VR devices. This is a highly certain trend.

Intelligent Emergence: Luo Yonghao seems to have started his business in the same year as you, and his initial direction was also AR glasses. Your partner has become your competitor. Have you communicated with him?

Wu Dezhou: In the first half of 2021, I left ByteDance to look for an entrepreneurial direction. By the end of 2021, the team was established. At that time, Teacher Luo was also preparing for this direction. Coincidentally, we had the same idea. For hardware people at that time, this was the only big trend, and it was a trend suitable for us.

Smartisan Technology also laid out AR glasses at that time. In 2016, Smartisan Technology established a special team of more than 30 people to be responsible for AR glasses, with Luo Zixiong as the person in charge. After I joined, we also made a VR demo machine, but it was not put on the market for sale. So, it is normal for us to choose this direction for entrepreneurship.

Intelligent Emergence: Did your experience at Smartisan Technology help or inspire your entrepreneurship?

Wu Dezhou: From Huawei to the Honor division and then to Smartisan Technology, it was mainly a change of roles. When I was at Huawei, I was more like a product manager; later, when I was in charge of the Honor division, I focused more on products and users.

When I got to Smartisan Technology, my role was different again. There were mainly two changes. One was that I got in touch with more investors and learned how to deal with them; the second was that I had to achieve satisfactory results with relatively limited funds and resources, which was different from the way of doing things in a large company.

At the same time, Luo's spirit of being an extreme product manager who pursues details has had a great influence on me. I think he did a very good job in this regard, but maybe he pursued details too much. So, I hope to find a balance between products and the market.

Intelligent Emergence: Which is more difficult, making mobile phones or making glasses?

Wu Dezhou: Mobile phones are actually quite mature. Everyone knows how to make them, and it is more about finding some differentiated selling points.

Making glasses is more difficult. For example, there is no fixed paradigm for AR glasses yet. The appearance, target user group, and service scenario have not been fixed. Manufacturers need to find the corresponding scenarios based on their understanding of products and users and make choices about functions according to the scenarios. There are no previous cases to refer to, which places very high requirements on the team.

AI glasses are a little easier than AR glasses. Because RayBan Meta is a bit of a guide. It has achieved PMF (Product - Market Fit) in the general market. So, you can see a lot of people copying the scenarios of RayBan Meta.

Our starting point is different. I think in the future, all mobile phone companies may make smart glasses because glasses are the next - generation interactive entrance, which is within the scope of the main track of mobile phone companies. As a startup, it is difficult for us to compete with mobile phone companies. So, we will choose a more vertical scenario and really penetrate this scenario.

Intelligent Emergence: Are vertical scenarios more suitable for startups?

Wu Dezhou: Take smart watches as an example. Although Huawei and Apple dominate the mainstream market, in the professional sports field, Garmin is the real leader. It focuses on the sports scenario, so the choices of functions and designs are different. Although Apple also has a sports version, professional athletes rarely choose it.

The product logic of Garmin is completely different: for example, it customizes waterproof and decompression algorithms for divers and designs offline trajectory recording and survival flashlights for cross - country runners. These scenario - based rigid needs are the moat of professional equipment.

Huawei and Apple will never add a flashlight to their watches because it is not fashionable. But for professional sports people, the flashlight function is exactly what they need. This gives us an inspiration : the competition in the consumer electronics industry is essentially the competition for the right to define scenarios. Blindly pursuing "big and comprehensive" is not as good as being irreplaceable in key scenarios. The goal of BleeqUp is to become the "Garmin" in the field of smart glasses.

Mobile phone manufacturers have an absolute advantage in making glasses, and vertical scenarios are more suitable for startups

Intelligent Emergence: What do you think of the currently launched AI glasses? It seems that they have not heated up the market.

Wu Dezhou: The currently launched AI glasses products are not made by giants, and they may not be the core players in the AI glasses market in the future. There is no precedent for an Internet company to do well in smart hardware. In my opinion, mobile phone manufacturers are the players most capable of seizing the dividends of the AI glasses era.

I firmly believe that in the general life scenario, glasses will become an individual's intelligent assistant. The core of becoming an assistant is that it must be able to access all the permissions of the mobile phone, such as booking air tickets, ordering takeaways, or recording meeting minutes. Suppose it does not have enough permissions, then it can only be used for chatting, just like a smart speaker, and it will become boring after a few conversations.

The real intelligent assistant in the future will interact with you actively, just like your secretary. It will actively remind you at important time points, and then you will find that you really can't do without it. To achieve this, mobile phone companies have a natural advantage because they can really access all the permissions of their mobile phones. Internet companies that do not make mobile phones do not have these permissions. After a while, their applications may be cleared in the background, and the user experience will be very