From being extremely popular to being “discouraged,” can Xiaomi AI glasses still sell well?

Recently, journalists conducted on - the - spot investigations in multiple locations such as Shanghai, Chengdu, and Hangzhou and found that the Xiaomi AI glasses, which once triggered a buying frenzy, have fallen into a predicament of high - opening and low - running sales just two months after their release, and the popularity in offline stores has dropped sharply.

Nearly two months after its launch, journalists from Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily recently conducted on - the - spot investigations in multiple locations such as Shanghai, Chengdu, and Hangzhou and found that the market attention towards the Xiaomi AI glasses is showing a cooling trend.

IDC data shows that in Q1 of 2025, the global smart glasses market shipped 1.487 million units, a year - on - year increase of 82.3%. During the same period, the Chinese smart glasses market shipped 494,000 units, a year - on - year increase of 116.1%. Since the AI glasses jointly developed by Meta and Ray - Ban were launched in October 2023, their sales have exceeded 2 million units.

The optimistic outlook for the AI glasses market has attracted domestic enterprises such as Xiaomi, Alibaba, and Huawei to follow suit. Data from Tianyancha Professional Edition shows that as of now, there are more than 400 existing and operating smart glasses - related enterprises in China.

However, the deficiencies in user experience of AI glasses such as those from Xiaomi, and the significant gap between their interactive functions and mature consumer electronic products, still largely hinder consumers' willingness to purchase.

Decline in Inquiries at Stores

In the early stage of its release, the Xiaomi AI glasses showed strong momentum, and their sales exceeded 10,000 units within five days of opening sales on the JD flagship store. There were rumors that Xiaomi internally urgently raised its sales target from 300,000 units to 500,000 units, which also once triggered the view that it was expected to kick off a new era of portable AI in China.

However, journalists from Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily recently visited Xiaomi's offline stores in multiple business districts in Shanghai and observed that consumers' enthusiasm for the AI glasses has significantly diminished compared to when the product was first released. During a nearly 20 - minute stay in several stores, the journalists did not observe any consumers actively inquiring about or trying on the product. On the first day of its release, the journalists saw many consumers queuing up to experience the AI glasses in the store.

According to the salesperson at a Xiaomi Home store in Pudong New Area, Shanghai, the store has sold dozens of Xiaomi AI glasses since their release and is in a state of "selling as many as available", but the replenishment frequency is not high. "Sometimes only 3 units are replenished in half a month." The salesperson at a Xiaomi Home store in Binjiang, Hangzhou, revealed that the monthly sales of the store are basically between 8 and 10 pairs.

The journalists' query of the sales data on e - commerce platforms shows that the sales of Xiaomi AI glasses on the Taobao, JD, and Douyin flagship stores are more than 7,000, more than 40,000, and more than 2,600 respectively. Due to participating in national subsidies, the products in the Xiaomi flagship stores on Taobao and JD are priced from 1,699 yuan; while the products in the Douyin store and offline channels, which do not participate in the subsidies, are priced from 1,999 yuan.

Currently, the monochromatic electrochromic version and the color electrochromic version are out of stock across the network. Inquiries at offline stores also show that there is no inventory and no replenishment notice has been received. Among the basic - model AI glasses, the tortoiseshell brown version is also sold out in the Douyin, Taobao, and JD flagship stores; only the black and parrot green versions are still in stock on Taobao and JD.

Data from Chanmama shows that the sales of Xiaomi AI glasses on the Douyin flagship store have shown a trend of high - opening and low - running. The sales reached a peak on the first day of release, with daily sales of 5,000 - 7,500 units. Then it continued to decline. As of August 18, the daily sales had dropped to 100 - 250 units.

When asked by the journalists whether they would recommend purchasing, several salespeople told the journalists straightforwardly: "If you have a budget and extra money and want to experience AI for the first time, you can buy one to try. If it's not a necessity and you don't have extra money, you don't have to buy it."

Who Can Replicate Meta's Success?

Different from Rokid, which is positioned in the mid - to - high - end market, the basic - model Xiaomi AI glasses are significantly cheaper. The journalists learned at the Maoyuanchang Optical Store in the Hubin business district, Hangzhou, that the Rokid Glasses are priced at 3,299 yuan and are expected to arrive in October, while the basic - model Xiaomi AI glasses in offline channels only cost 1,999 yuan.

As highly precise AI glasses, the high - cost - performance strategy may be accompanied by risks of unstable quality control. Previously, from R & D to launch, the Xiaomi AI glasses were regarded by the market as a potential product that could replicate the successful path of Meta's smart glasses in China. However, just two months after its release, when the journalists browsed platforms such as Xiaohongshu and visited offline stores, they found that there were not a few negative feedbacks on the user experience of the Xiaomi AI glasses.

Many users posted that the Xiaomi AI glasses have a strong overall plastic feeling. "Xiaomi's glasses are full of a cheap plastic feeling everywhere. The soft temples and frames, and the lenses are just a thin transparent plastic plate. It seems that there is no coating, and people with normal vision will experience serious reflection when wearing them." A user admitted in a post.

When the journalists experienced the glasses at a Xiaomi flagship store in a business district in Chengdu, they also found that the glasses are very light in weight and do not cause much burden when worn. However, the design of the black frame and temples is relatively thick. Although it uses lightweight carbon fiber materials, the overall still shows a plastic feeling. A high - school student waiting to experience the glasses also thought that the material of the glasses lacked a sense of technology.

The journalists also noticed in the store that the materials after taking photos and videos with the Xiaomi AI glasses need to be managed on the mobile phone interface and cannot be operated on the glasses. And because the glasses do not have a pre - lens display function, taking photos and videos is almost like blind shooting, which is different from taking photos with a mobile phone, where adjustments can be made through the real - time picture.

The clerk admitted that this problem has triggered a lot of feedback from users. New users need a long time to adapt. Especially in the video - shooting scenario, the lack of an anti - shake function in the glasses leads to obvious shaking in the final video.

In addition, the built - in voice - interaction large - model "Xiaomi Smart Assistant" has also triggered users' complaints, mainly focusing on the insensitive wake - up response and the easy simultaneous wake - up with other Mi - Home devices, resulting in misoperations.

"The Xiaomi Smart Assistant in the glasses cannot customize the wake - up word and often wakes up other Mi - Home devices at home, which is very inconvenient." A user told the journalists straightforwardly. "The expectations were too high when Xiaomi launched the AI glasses, and now there is a big gap."

It is worth noting that, similar to electronic products such as mobile phones, the Xiaomi AI glasses also do not support "seven - day no - reason return" after being unpacked and used, which has triggered users' dissatisfaction. Some consumers questioned that there is an essential difference between glasses and mobile phones. The glasses do not have an activation function such as setting an account, and just trying them on should not affect the secondary sales of the product.

Ye Qingqing, an analyst at IDC China, also told the journalists from Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that the current development of domestic AI glasses mainly faces multiple challenges such as hardware foundation, application ecosystem, and quality control.

In Ye Qingqing's view, mainstream products generally have basic experience shortcomings in terms of weight, battery life, heat dissipation, etc. at the hardware level, which restricts their practicality as daily wearable devices and also leads to a gap between users' actual experience and expectations. In terms of the application ecosystem, there is a lack of killer applications, so most functions of the glasses can still be replaced by other terminals.

Meanwhile, Ye Qingqing believes that the future development of the industry will present a dual - track parallel path, that is, lightweight glasses will be upgraded from a single "audio - shooting tool" to a multi - functional "personal life assistant", and the consumer group will also accelerate the penetration from early adopters to diversified fields such as sports and health, mobile office, smart home, social entertainment, and even barrier - free assistance. On the other hand, professional - grade head - mounted display devices will continue to deepen their development in vertical fields to form a differentiated development pattern.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Caixinlian AI Daily". Authors: Li Jiayi, Xu Cihao, etc. Republished by 36Kr with permission.