Alibaba Quark S1 AI Glasses: The Absence of an "App Store"

AR and AI glasses lack a terminal operating system similar to what Android was for mobile phones.

Recently in the circle of AR and AI glasses, the hottest pair of glasses is probably Alibaba's Quark S1, which offers a display screen, large AI models, and voice control capabilities.

Users can perform tasks such as making payments, listening to music, and taking photos on it. Meanwhile, it provides an ultra-long battery life of up to 7 hours in total, which is also a highlight of Alibaba's Quark S1 glasses.

This pair of glasses almost integrates Alibaba's current closed-loop ecosystem, including Tongyi Qianwen model, Gaode Map, NetEase Cloud Music, etc. Currently, the pre - installed applications are mainly from the closed - loop ecosystem.

You can search for Quark smart hardware on Taobao to make a purchase. It is sold in limited quantities at 10 a.m. every day. Moreover, this pair of glasses supports disassembly and installation. The battery can be used continuously for 7 hours and has a standby time of 25 hours.

Judging from relevant review bloggers, the current performance of Quark S1 is quite good. However, from the perspective of product managers and developers, there is still a very important layout missing, which is the "App Store".

It is still unknown what operating system Quark S1 uses. However, judging from the currently supported applications, it is most likely based on the mobile Android system.

Also, it is still unclear what operating system Quark S1 glasses use. Currently, since it uses the Qualcomm AR1 chip, it is most likely a mobile Android system.

This chip does not support Android XR. That is to say, Alibaba's Quark S1 focuses on hardware volume, but it is not targeted at developers. To truly create an ecosystem for developers, Android XR must be adopted to build the App Store.

Currently, everything is about volume, and the market value of product managers and developers is getting higher and higher.

Regarding all the glasses currently on the market, not to mention the return rate, almost all of them are seizing the terminal market for AI and AR glasses. That is to say, these terminal devices will gradually become the second terminal product after mobile phones.

In the future, it will be a long - term situation for a user to own a mobile phone and an AR or AI pair of glasses, until mobile phones eventually disappear.

Different from the previous Android for mobile phones, today's Android XR is not open - source or is only available through targeted authorization, rather than being completely open and allowing any developer to use it as before.

Without full authorization, it is extremely difficult, almost impossible, for these glasses' operating systems to build a developer ecosystem. You know, it took Huawei many years to develop the Hongmeng system, but the ecosystem is still not good enough, at least in terms of developer support.

Developers are flocking to the vision Pro

Fortunately, the pioneer Apple has been helping educate developers for glasses manufacturers like Quark S1. Through the vision OS spatial operating system of products like the vision Pro, developers can gain relatively mature experience in the interaction design and technical implementation of spatial operating systems (such as our team). Moreover, technologies such as OpenXR and Unity for spatial operating systems have been developed, and all these will be repeated in Android XR, which can support both AR and MR devices.

The later versions of Quark S1 will definitely add AR functions. Therefore, it is mentioned that now is the best time for developers and product managers to prepare and get ready for spatial applications in advance.

The best place for preparation is Apple's vision OS system, which provides gesture and eye - tracking technologies, allowing developers to develop various MR and AR applications almost one - to - one.

For example, the functions of vision OS apps can be compressed and migrated to current Android XR devices.

Currently, the official website customer service has not provided information on what operating system Quark S1 uses. However, I can infer that it is most likely a mobile Android system.

Currently, domestic devices supporting Android XR: Xreal, VIVO, and Wan Chu Meng Xiang

Currently, among domestic devices, only Xreal has news on its official website about supporting Android XR. However, VIVO vision and Wan Chu Meng Xiang are also supporting it. Other devices like TCL Thunderbird have plans to support Android XR, while the situation of ROKID is unknown.

Since Android XR requires targeted authorization unlike the Android for mobile phones, it is still unclear which device manufacturers in China will be able to use it in the future. However, if VIVO uses it, it is obvious that OPPO, Xiaomi, etc. will most likely follow.

Prerequisite for the App Store era: user volume determines market value

For developers to make money, they first need to ensure that their applications can reach a sufficient number of users. And for developers to have users, there must be a certain amount of device ownership.

With the current device ownership situation, there should not be too many operating systems. For example, during the Nokia era, there were three developer operating systems: Windows Phone, Android, and iOS. As a result, developers had to develop three versions for each application.

Eventually, Android and iOS had the most terminal devices, so developers concentrated on these two platforms. Windows Phone was only used by Nokia. Due to the decrease in device shipments, there were fewer developers, fewer applications, and finally, users left.

It can be seen that the developer ecosystem and device terminals support each other.

Currently, there is still a lack of super - apps for AR and AI glasses

Ma Huateng once shared at a conference: "A new social tool will emerge with each new terminal device, and WeChat emerged with the mobile Internet." In the field of AR and MR spatial computing, WeChat is too backward and will definitely be replaced, which I said when I wore the vision Pro.

I have written two articles:

From Vivo vision to vision Pro, I feel that WeChat is too backward

On the vision Pro and Android XR, I see the next WeChat and WhatsApp

The inefficiency and lack of real - life social restoration that mobile WeChat cannot provide are doomed to be replaced by MR and AR glasses, and the next WeChat will emerge.

These super - apps will lock in users and make them have to buy AR and MR glasses.

Ultimately, which device terminals can take the lead in Android XR or the mainstream spatial operating systems will be determined by the market. Just like Xiaomi, OPPO, and VIVO in the past, they first used the Android system, then modified it, and gradually developed it into a deeply customized domestic operating system.

Now, Android XR will have the same effect as before, that is, it will become a customized domestic version of Android XR.

Of course, a third operating system is emerging in the field of AR and MR glasses: Mentraos

Finally, due to the huge imagination space of AR and AI glasses, glasses from various manufacturers on the market have their own developer platforms, which are not mutually compatible. As a result, the operating systems of AI glasses from different manufacturers are also different, and developers need to support them separately. For example, if they develop an app for ROKID, they have to re - develop it for Thunderbird.

Now, a foreign company has started to follow the path of the previous Android for mobile phones, which is MentraOS. Through an open - source glasses operating system and open - source hardware, it allows any hardware manufacturer to use its operating system, which may bring opportunities for various hardware manufacturers and eventually lead to a large - scale development.

Previously, without their own hardware, Xiaomi and Smartisan used others' hardware to flash their systems. They didn't start with their own hardware at first. Now, MentraOS is the same. However, the current glasses market does not support flashing to MentraOS, but it has open - sourced its glasses hardware and design.

Moreover, the founder is committed to making it the next Android for smart glasses. Currently, more than 4000 developers have joined the community.

It doesn't really matter which terminal hardware developers choose. What's important is flexibility, the ability to quickly develop applications, and access to all the capabilities of the terminal glasses.

Currently, MentraOS seems to be the most reliable option, and its supply chain is in Shenzhen.

Now, the field of AR and MR glasses is in a chaotic state. Each manufacturer has its own operating system, and the OS for glasses has not been determined. Apart from the Apple ecosystem, other glasses manufacturers will not fully compromise with Google due to domestic information security issues. Moreover, Google's Android XR this time has targeted open - source code, different from the previous Android for mobile phones.

Maybe this is why Quark S1 doesn't have an App Store yet. Without an App Store, it is doomed that not many users will use it in the long run.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Kevin's Little Bits of Changing the World" (ID: Kevingbsjddd), author: Kevin's Stories, published by 36Kr with authorization.