Alibaba Enters the "Frame", Quark Knocks on the Door

• Quark has simultaneously launched six AI glasses in two series, including three models in the S1 series with a standard set priced at 3,999 yuan, and three models in the G1 series, which are more stylish and priced lower.
• These glasses represent a crucial step for Quark to transition from being an "AI search tool and assistant" to an "AI entry point", reflecting Alibaba's ambition to regain control over the next - generation human - machine interaction.
• In Alibaba's strategic plan, Quark serves as the "living eye". Allowing Quark to develop the glasses is actually Alibaba's attempt to leverage its most substantial ecological resources through the lightest - weight carrier.

Alibaba's long - awaited first AI glasses have finally made their official debut.

On November 27th, at Alibaba's Chaoyang Science and Technology Park in Beijing, Quark simultaneously launched six AI glasses in two series. In addition to the S1, which had already started pre - sales and 1 - yuan pre - orders during the Double Eleven period, three models in the G1 series were also introduced.

The G1 series has a more fashionable appearance. It has the same hardware configurations as the S1 in terms of the chip, camera, and acoustics, but it sacrifices the near - eye display function and reduces the price to less than 2,299 yuan, which is similar to the price range of the Xiaodu AI Glasses Pro and Xiaomi AI Glasses. The previously pre - sold S1 series products have a standard set priced at 3,999 yuan.

The two series target different user groups. Obviously, Alibaba hopes that this hardware product, which shoulders the important task of being an AI entry point, can reach a wider range of people.

At the press conference, Wu Jia, the vice - president of Alibaba Group, who made his first public appearance, said, "The Quark AI Glasses, together with the Qianwen Personal Assistant, can meet all our definitions and imaginations of an AI assistant."

As the person in charge of the Qianwen application, Wu Jia called the Quark AI Glasses "the best AI glasses on the market at present" and straightforwardly stated, "When users choose the Quark AI Glasses, they are actually choosing Alibaba's Qianwen large - model and the entire Alibaba ecosystem."

For Quark, these glasses mark a crucial step from being an "AI search tool and assistant" to an "AI entry point". For Alibaba, after the initial implementation of large - model capabilities, it represents a hardware exploration to extend AI capabilities from the mobile phone screen to the physical world. It reflects Alibaba's ambition to make a comeback in the intelligent hardware field and regain control over the next - generation human - machine interaction.

A Ticket to the "Battle of a Hundred Glasses"

The Quark AI Glasses are the first intelligent hardware to be equipped with the Qianwen Assistant. Quark positions it as: a portable super assistant; an intelligent terminal that can be used throughout the day in multiple scenarios; and a pair of beautiful and comfortable glasses.

As a pair of beautiful and comfortable glasses, the Quark AI Glasses far exceed the passing standard.

Xuebao Finance Society experienced the SI Wellington frame product on - site. Both its appearance and wearing comfort met the requirements. In terms of appearance, the temples of the glasses are as thin as 7.5 millimeters, and the upper frame is as thin as 3.3 millimeters. The high - refractive - index lenses with coating technology also make the lenses more transparent. The front and back of the glasses are evenly weighted at a 1:1 ratio, and the contact surfaces of the nose pads and ear bends adopt a bionic curved - surface design. For those who are used to wearing myopia glasses, there is no additional pressure on the nose, and the wrapping and stability are also sufficient.

Based on Wu Jia's judgment that "in the future, every pair of glasses will be AI glasses, and everyone will need a pair of AI glasses", Quark has also made improvements in all - day use and long - battery life: the innovative battery - swapping design of the dual - battery system allows users to quickly replace the main battery by hot - swapping the temples, and it also comes with a portable battery - swapping compartment, which can achieve 24 - hour battery life.

In terms of scenarios and ecosystem, the Quark AI Glasses, backed by Alibaba, have an inherent advantage. The Qianwen Assistant it is equipped with has integrated core scenarios in the Alibaba ecosystem, such as Alipay, Gaode Map, Taobao, Fliggy, and Alibaba Business Travel. It can support the near - eye navigation system and display taxi - hailing information, query surrounding information (such as dining and refueling), support Alipay QR - code payment, search and compare prices of Taobao products, and remind users of travel information.

According to Jin Xian, the person in charge of Alibaba's intelligent hardware products, future products will also support the MCP protocol to build a developer ecosystem.

Because the glasses carry a huge ecosystem and rich scenarios, Alibaba attaches great importance to them.

The Quark AI Glasses made their first public appearance at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in July this year. According to the official information disclosed at that time, Alibaba's first self - developed AI glasses had completed development and were expected to be officially launched within the year.

Since then, Quark has been building momentum for this AI glasses product.

On October 24th, the Quark AI Glasses started pre - sales on the Tmall flagship store, and 1 - yuan reservations were also opened simultaneously on the official stores of JD.com and Douyin. As of 2 p.m. on November 27th, JD.com showed that 5,852 people had made reservations, Douyin showed 5,873 people, and Tmall showed more than 5,000 people had made payments.

Before the product launch, Quark spent half a year inviting 400 technology bloggers, digital experts, and lifestyle creators globally for in - depth experiences of more than a month to promote and generate interest in the Quark AI Glasses.

However, the Quark AI Glasses still have a long way to go before becoming a portable super assistant.

During the on - site experience by Xuebao Finance Society, the Quark AI Glasses once failed to respond to voice interactions. The on - site staff explained that this was due to the unstable signal of the guest network of the associated mobile phone in the indoor enclosed space with a dense population. This also means that the AI glasses will still be restricted and rely on the mobile phone for some time.

In addition, although the Quark AI Glasses S1 is equipped with dual flagship chips and a dual - system intelligent scheduling system to ensure that Qianwen can respond quickly to demands, and it also performs well in instant photo - taking, video recording, and acoustics, due to the extremely limited space and weight of the glasses themselves, there must be some trade - offs in the functional design. This is also a common problem faced by all AI glasses at this stage.

However, in this crucial time window of the "Battle of a Hundred Glasses", seizing the opportunity in time is more important than pursuing perfection.

Why Now?

AI glasses are not a new concept, but they only became candidates for the "next - generation entry point" in the past two years. Behind this is the result of both supply and demand reaching an inflection point.

On the one hand, global technology giants have become more active. Through its cooperation with Ray - Ban, Meta has transformed glasses into a portable content tool: taking photos, live - streaming, answering questions, and generating AI summaries, making it a "portable camera lens". Although Apple's Vision Pro creates a high - end paradigm for spatial computing, its underlying concept is clearer - the next - generation computing platform will no longer rely on the palm but on the human eye.

At the same time, domestic manufacturers, including Huawei, Rokid, and Xiaomi, are also exploring more practical demands such as communication, translation, navigation, and B - end inspection, gradually turning AI glasses from novelty toys into practical tools.

These attempts all point to a trend: the era of the mobile phone as the main entry point is starting to show signs of change.

"The greatest potential of AI lies not in the mobile phone screen but in taking over the digital world and changing the physical world." The words of Wu Yongming, the CEO of Alibaba Group, also reflect this change in perception.

In the gap left by the mobile phone, glasses have been chosen. Due to their visual, auditory, and tactile characteristics, they have become a more natural and seamless human - machine interface.

The window period in the Chinese market is also quietly emerging.

In the domestic market, full - function AR/VR devices have never been able to penetrate the mass consumer market due to their high cost, heavy weight, and limited content. In contrast, lightweight AI glasses - which retain the form of daily glasses, rely on the mobile phone or cloud computing power, and focus on specific functions - have become a more realistic choice. These products do not pursue an immersive experience but solve the problem of information - acquisition efficiency in specific scenarios, such as identifying products, translating menus, and recording meeting points.

More importantly, the technological conditions are mature.

Alibaba's self - developed Tongyi Qianwen (Qwen) series has launched a lightweight model suitable for edge - side deployment, which can run basic voice and vision tasks on low - power chips; Alibaba Cloud's T-Head Semiconductor's AI acceleration chips have started to be used in edge devices; the cost of micro - sensors and bone - conduction audio components continues to decline. The prototype of the "all - day AI assistant", which was difficult to implement in the past, has the basic support to move from concept to product between 2024 and 2025.

These developments make it possible to integrate basic AI capabilities into a pair of glasses.

When the curves of supply, demand, and technology all approach the critical point simultaneously, the competition for the next - generation entry point intensifies. Whoever can launch a product that is "light enough, useful enough, and cheap enough" at the right time is more likely to seize the most crucial gateway when the AI dividends flow from the cloud to the terminal.

For Quark, 2025 is both an opportunity window and a moment when it can no longer afford to wait - because the determination of the next - generation entry point will not give too much time to the hesitant.

Why Quark?

In Alibaba's vast business landscape, why should Quark be the one to take on this challenge?

Quark entered the market with minimalist search. In the early days, it attracted a large number of young users with its "ad - free experience". In recent years, it has gradually added functions such as cloud storage, scanning, and document processing, and has maintained long - term activity in the general decline environment of tool - type apps.

According to the third - party data agency QuestMobile, Quark has over 100 million monthly active users. With the addition of AI functions, such as document scanning, image recognition, academic tutoring, and intelligent Q&A, Quark has gradually evolved from a "search tool" to an "AI assistant".

The user scale of hundreds of millions means that Quark has a large and high - frequency user group that can support the attempt of new forms such as glasses. When users search for information on Quark, they are essentially seeking a more efficient and uninterrupted way of cognition. This is naturally in line with the logic of "seeing is getting" emphasized by glasses. And the functions that Quark users use more frequently are mostly concentrated in scenarios such as learning, office work, and information query. This tool attribute makes it more suitable than transaction or collaboration - type applications such as Taobao and DingTalk to serve as an "instant information assistant".

Secondly, there is a clear differentiation strategy. In the domestic and international AI glasses market, different directions have emerged: Huawei emphasizes communication and full - scenario interconnection; Baidu focuses more on family and knowledge scenarios; Meta focuses on social and content creation; Rokid focuses on audio - visual and AR experiences.

In this context, Quark chooses to start from improving information - acquisition efficiency, which is essentially an extension and upgrade of its search ability. In other words, it is not creating new hardware but conducting screen - less search: it can recognize and understand the text it sees, summon knowledge when it sees an object, and execute tasks when it hears a voice. The glasses are no longer an accessory but become an "information resource manager in front of your eyes".

This positioning makes Quark's strategic vision more coherent - moving from the search box to the visual entry point, and from information retrieval to real - time cognition. The hardware is just a change in form, and the underlying logic is always a re - design of the basic need for "acquiring information".

This positioning makes Quark's strategic story more consistent - moving from the search box to the visual entry point, and from information retrieval to real - time cognition. The hardware is just a change in form, and the underlying logic is always a re - design of the basic need for "acquiring information".

In Alibaba's game plan, Quark is a "living eye". It connects a large amount of C - end traffic and can also connect the B - end service ecosystem through AI capabilities. Letting Quark develop the glasses is actually Alibaba's attempt to leverage the heaviest ecological resources with the lightest carrier.

In the past few years, although Alibaba has made many attempts in hardware, most of them have not formed a sustainable ecosystem. The AI wave has re - defined the value of hardware: hardware is no longer the end but the carrier of model capabilities and the connection point of ecological services.

Quark has become Alibaba's "vanguard" at this stage, undertaking the task of exploring a new entry point. Its significance for Alibaba's AI strategy far exceeds that of a consumer electronics device itself.

What Are the Chances of Success?

The competition for the entry point is often not just a technical issue but a long - term game of product experience and ecosystem. Both the opportunities and limitations of Quark lie in its deep connection with the Alibaba ecosystem.

Let's first look at the opportunities. Quark does not need to create new demands but improve efficiency in existing fragmented scenarios.

For example, Gaode's AR navigation has been widely used by a large number of users. If it can be stably projected on the glasses, it can directly reduce the frequency of "looking at the mobile phone for navigation". DingTalk's real - time meeting transcription and summary generation may become a necessity for business users, especially in a multi - task and high - density communication environment. The file retrieval and content understanding capabilities provided by Quark Cloud Storage can also achieve the experience of "retrieving a document as soon as you see its title" on the glasses.

If these scenarios are integrated smoothly enough, they will form a real value - closed loop rather than remaining at the level of "showy functions". Quark has potential advantages in this regard.

However, the challenges are also obvious. For Quark and Alibaba, ecosystem collaboration is both an advantage and a constraint.

The integrity of the product experience highly depends on the cooperation of multiple business units within Alibaba. Any delay or non - uniform standard in any link may lead to a functional breakdown. And cross - team collaboration in large technology companies has always suffered from efficiency losses, which poses potential constraints on the product iteration speed and user experience.

Alibaba has rich technical and business capabilities internally, but how to effectively integrate them across teams and businesses is a real test. In the past, Alibaba's explorations in the hardware field - from YunOS to Tmall Genie - have all been difficult to scale up sustainably due to the lack of a closed - loop ecosystem and insufficient business traction.

Now, whether the AI glasses can be an exception will depend on whether Alibaba can truly form an organizational mechanism of "driving hardware with software and ecosystem". Whether technology can flow, teams can collaborate, and businesses can avoid internal strife will determine the upper limit of the Quark AI Glasses.

Finally, a deeper problem lies in shaping users' usage habits. This is not only a challenge for Quark but also for all companies in the same industry.

It took more than a decade for the mobile phone to become the super - entry point, and it also took nearly a decade for smart watches to become popular. For the glasses form to become a stable entry point, users need to wear them continuously in daily life. This not only tests the product design but also whether the ecological scenarios can form a "necessity effect". If the glasses are only occasional auxiliary tools, it is difficult for them to become a real entry point.

Therefore, Quark's launch of the AI glasses