AI glasses are “hard to wear”, but why can't manufacturers stop producing them?
01 Returns of Xiaomi Products and Poor Sales of Apple Products
The Apple Vision Pro, once highly anticipated, has failed to live up to expectations.
At the end of 2024, Bloomberg reported that its sales were less than 500,000 units, and its usage rate was also low. MacRumors even published an article stating that due to weak market demand, Apple may have stopped producing the Vision Pro. This high - priced product lacking a "killer app" has ultimately failed to become a market hit, with very limited shipments, which is a pity in the tech industry.
Meanwhile, lightweight AI glasses have emerged as a new force.
Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, AI technology has swept through the tech industry, and the field of smart glasses has also undergone a transformation. Previously, smart glasses were mainly divided into two categories: AR and VR, but the user experience was poor, and the shipments were far behind those of smartphones.
However, Meta, which is "all in" on the metaverse, has jointly launched the AI glasses Ray - Ban Meta with Ray - Ban. It has completely abandoned the bulky components of traditional AR and VR devices and introduced AI technology, realizing functions such as taking photos, recording videos, making calls, and AI Q&A.
Although AI glasses are popular, they are not perfect.
They lack display capabilities and have significant shortcomings in the experience aspect.
As Li Hongwei, the CEO of Thunderbird Innovation, said, "We not only need AI technology but also the integration of the digital world and the real world."
A netizen who traveled to Japan with Xiaomi AI glasses wanted to use its translation function for convenient communication. However, when translating Japanese menus, the glasses could only output one character at a time, with extremely low efficiency. It was even worse than using a mobile phone to take a photo for translation.
Currently, AI glasses cannot function without a mobile phone. Photos, videos, and other content taken need to be imported into the mobile phone for viewing, and adjusting settings also requires the mobile phone app.
This shows that AI glasses are difficult to carry more information like smartphones and become a popular computing platform.
While Xiaomi products are being returned, Apple products are having poor sales, and AI glasses have disadvantages, vivo has resolutely chosen to increase its investment in MR devices.
On August 13, 2025, vivo officially announced that its vivo Vision mixed - reality headset would be released on August 21. Judging from the promotional poster, its appearance is similar to that of the Vision Pro, featuring a surround - style head - mounted design and a woven headband.
The product manager revealed that the vivo Vision is very light, similar to the AirPods Max, with a simple and elegant texture, and the experience is very engaging.
Moreover, the price of the vivo Vision is significantly lower than that of the Vision Pro. Digital bloggers have reported that its price is less than 20,000 yuan, about 30% lower than the Vision Pro.
Perhaps vivo made this choice because it has a unique understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of MR devices and AI glasses. MR devices have a display screen, which can bridge the "gap" between the virtual world and the real environment, offering greater room for imagination.
After experiencing the Vision Pro, a netizen said, "The Vision Pro is much more impressive than ordinary VR glasses. It is very clear, and watching videos is extremely enjoyable. Moreover, it can switch between the virtual and real worlds with one click, which feels very sci - fi."
However, the netizen did not buy it because they thought the "input - output ratio was not ideal." Wearing it for a long time was tiring, and it was not worth spending 30,000 yuan on it.
This is the key reason why the Vision Pro has been abandoned by the market: it lacks a "killer app" and is expensive.
However, the vivo Vision has targeted and made up for many of the Vision Pro's shortcomings. It has good weight control, and its long - term wearing comfort is better than that of the Vision Pro.
At the same time, its display specifications may be among the top in the industry. It uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4nm platform in terms of hardware, and its interaction and content goals are benchmarked against Apple.
Moreover, considering that the average transaction price of the Vision Pro on the second - hand trading platform Xianyu in the past 7 days was 16,000 yuan, to attract consumers, the price of the vivo Vision may not be higher than 16,000 yuan.
From a more macroscopic strategic perspective, vivo's launch of the vivo Vision has a more ambitious goal.
In March 2025, vivo's executive vice - president announced the establishment of a robotics lab, which will focus on the R & D of the "brain" and "eyes" technologies of robots through the two technologies of artificial intelligence and imaging. The higher - dimensional strategic value of the vivo Vision is to become the "eyes" of robots. Its shell is equipped with multiple sensors, including LiDAR for collecting spatial information, structured light depth sensors, and infrared sensors.
If the vivo Vision can be shipped in large quantities, vivo can continuously optimize its spatial recognition ability through the massive real - time spatial data collected, providing technical support for the implementation of humanoid robots.
02 Why Are AI Glasses Difficult to Wear?
Smart glasses, which sound extremely cool and seem like a technological product straight out of a science - fiction movie, have not been as quickly popularized as expected. Why is that?
Firstly, battery anxiety is always there.
Glasses, as something worn closely on the body, comfort is undoubtedly the primary consideration. The lightest glasses on the market are so light that you can hardly feel them after wearing them for a long time.
However, smart glasses face many challenges in achieving the same level of comfort.
They need to fit a series of electronic components such as batteries, chips, and cameras within a limited weight, leaving very little space for the battery.
Some may ask, can't we develop a battery with a small volume and large capacity? This involves the issue of "energy density."
Imagine the battery as a suitcase, and the energy density is how much it can hold. Current lithium - ion batteries are already the most mature technology globally and are filled to the brim. If you want to fit more, either you need to change the suitcase, but there is currently no better option; or you force more in, which may result in an explosion.
Take the Wigain XR glasses of the Qiuguo Project as an example. The glasses' body is equipped with a 600 - mAh battery, and it also needs to be paired with a 6000 - mAh battery station to barely ensure long - term battery life.
Secondly, they are not user - friendly enough.
For smart glasses, being able to display information is not enough; they also need to be easy to operate.
The key to measuring the usability of a computing platform is the "interaction bandwidth" - the efficiency of input and output.
A computer is like a highway. Typing on the keyboard is fast and accurate, and the mouse can point precisely. It is proficient in various tasks such as drawing, writing novels, and making spreadsheets. A mobile phone is like a cement road. Tapping on the screen has greatly reduced efficiency. Typing is slow, and the operation accuracy is poor. No one really uses a mobile phone to write hundreds of thousands of words or create detailed design drawings. It is mainly used for "viewing."
For smart glasses to make further progress in operation, they must find a more efficient and user - friendly interaction method.
Finally, the camera brings a trust crisis.
This involves the trust between people and belongs to the category of the "social contract."
A basic understanding is that you cannot take my photo without my consent. When using a mobile phone to take someone's photo, the action is obvious, and the other person can notice and choose to agree or refuse. However, the camera on smart glasses makes the "shooting" action hidden.
When I look at you while wearing glasses, are you sure if I'm just looking at you, recording you, or just in a daze? You have no idea!
This is similar to the panic caused when drones first appeared. Later, drones were equipped with an "electronic fence," and the system restricted the flight area, gradually winning people's trust.
Smart glasses also need such a "trust fence," which requires the joint efforts of major glasses manufacturers and relevant regulatory departments to establish and improve.
03 AI Glasses: Why Do Manufacturers "Keep Going" Despite Failing to Win Users' Hearts?
In the AI glasses market, although users' feedback has been lukewarm, manufacturers are still enthusiastic and are flocking to it one after another. What kind of logic and considerations are hidden behind this?
First and foremost, it's the support of the macro - environment!
In the tech industry, as AI technology matures, embodied intelligence has become a major trend.
According to a report from Toubao Research, the market size of embodied intelligence in China was 418.6 billion yuan in 2023 and is expected to reach 632.8 billion yuan in 2027. Many tech companies have set their sights on the robot track. Li Xiang, the CEO of Li Auto, said that he wants to turn the company into a spatial robot enterprise. ByteDance has also mass - produced more than a thousand robots. Wang Xingxing, the CEO of Unitree Robotics, believes that after the large - scale maturity of general AI, everyone can easily build a humanoid robot.
However, the current AI industry, especially in the consumer - oriented C - end field, is in an awkward bottleneck period: There is a lot of hype, but no way to make money. Various AI products are emerging in an endless stream and come in diverse forms, but most of them are just "usable" by users and far from being "indispensable."
Even a star product like ChatGPT is mainly limited to the office scenario and is difficult to become a real "killer app."
A key reason is that these AI applications still rely on traditional terminals such as mobile phones and PCs and are difficult to break through the constraints of the original ecosystem and open up new ground.
Previously, early AR glasses products tried to enter the consumer market but failed due to limited experience and few covered scenarios. With the maturity of large - scale models and cloud - based collaborative capabilities, the potential of AI glasses has been truly activated.
"However, the big manufacturers are still tirelessly iterating."
Take Alibaba's Quark glasses as an example. It attempts to seamlessly integrate services such as navigation, payment, and price comparison to create a "seamless" scenario closed - loop, achieving a smooth experience like "paying with just one look" and "real - time price comparison."
AI glasses are highly anticipated and are regarded as the most core mobile entry point after smartphones. Giants such as Meta and Xiaomi have positioned them as the ultimate carrier of a "portable AI assistant."
More importantly, compared with pure software applications, smart hardware provides a clearer commercialization path.
The hardware itself can be sold for money, and in the future, the profit model can be expanded through content subscriptions, value - added services, etc., providing users with a more intuitive, immersive, and convenient experience.
Market data also gives positive feedback:
In the first quarter of 2025, the global shipments of smart glasses increased significantly. The situation in the Chinese market was even more remarkable, with a significant year - on - year increase. Xiaomi's first - generation AI glasses also had a good start, selling 50,000 pairs in 3 days and running out of stock offline, which immediately raised the domestic attention to AI glasses. Just in the second quarter of this year, many giants have launched new AI glasses, and now Alibaba has also joined the battle.
However, users' actual feedback on AI glasses is still not as good as manufacturers' expectations.
Surveys show that only a small number of users are attracted by the AI functions. Most of the usage frequency is concentrated on taking photos and stereo sound, and few are satisfied with the AI functions. When using AI glasses, users spend most of their time listening to music and taking photos. Although each manufacturer seems to have its own "unique skills," the entire market is still in the "enlightenment" stage, and no one has truly built a "moat." Problems such as uncomfortable wearing, short battery life, and rigid AI interaction experience are still obvious. Everyone is still exploring, presenting a "chaotic battle among the heroes" situation.
However, manufacturers still haven't given up because they know that every technological innovation needs to go through such a painful period.
In this "chaotic battle among the heroes," whoever can break through the bottleneck first and solve users' pain points will stand out in this technological competition and become the future winner.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Market Value Home", author: Sun Xinxin, published by 36Kr with permission.