I’ve been observing from the barrier how the career of The augmented reality. And, I must be Franco: so far no one had taken it seriously, not even Apple.
Vision Pro It is a brilliant product, but niche. Very niche. Google herself renocated in her most important event of the year, the I/or 2025 which believes to recognize as a key to democratize access to this product category.
“We know that glasses can only be really useful if you want to wear them all day.”
And Android XR arrived
Android XR marks a before and after. It is the first real effort to create an accessible mass platform for every manufacturer that bets on augmented or mixed reality glasses. What seemed An initial project in conjunction with Samsung To develop a VR helmet, it has ended up materializing in a paradisiacal garden on which any manufacturer can walk.
This operating system will play a fundamental role in the popularization of A format with great sale potential: Traditional glasses with augmented reality. A platform through which users can use (naturally) apps such as Google Maps, photos and, the most important, Gemini, on reduced size devices.
Google is not winning only the race when developing an open platform that gives life to a product that free us (at least partially) of the smartphone, is also leading Who offers the best assistant driven by AI.
The Gemini native integration In augmented reality glasses it makes even more sense than a mobile. The voice command becomes almost an essential when the physical interaction with the device is minimized.
It is, in fact, Google’s goal. Free ourselves from the smartphone in daily tasks How to call, follow addresses towards some point or something as simple as adding a reminder to the calendar. The friction is minimized to remove the mobile from the pocket for any of these purposes. Glasses, voice command, effective execution.
THE BATTLE FOR PRICE AND FORMAT
Vision Pro or even Quest target are born as niche products. Apple sells mixed reality at almost 4,000 dollars (taxes included), with results below analysts’ predictions. About 175,000 units sold in a year.
Goal has been Selling the Oculus Quest as hot breadwith an accumulated of 20 million units. Perhaps the quality-price has something to do. So much that Apple considers to focus efforts on more economical vision.
“We know that glasses can only be really useful if you want
take them all day. “
Virtual reality has its niche, But the augmented opens to products mainstream (glasses that you can wear almost all day), a formula that starts working.
Not satisfied with Meta Quest figures, the company started four years ago an incursion into the world of traditional format glasses next to Ray-Ban. First with Ray-Ban Storiesand Three years later with Ray-Ban Meta. A new product, a “new” format, and One million sales in their first year of life.
The “traditional glasses with headphones and things” works. But the goal is missing a platform adapted to this format and less limited hardware (these glasses can barely record some video, receive notifications and call).
And there China comes into play
China has been engaged in a career to lead the technologies necessary to create traditional format glasses with augmented reality. And there are five big names in it:
- XREAL
- Rayneo
- Rokid
- Immobile
- Meizu
It is curious how, beyond giants like Huawei (whose platform Harmonyos does not currently prioritize AR devices) innovation in this territory is in the hands of small businesses.
XREAL It is a start-up that already works in some Badge glasses Under the Android XR platform. It will be a product to take into account and relevant to China, since Most hardware is produced nationwide (currently 65%, with the aim of reaching 100% on a two -year horizon). Instead of betting on Qualcomm technologies, Xreal has its own chip for glasses, the X1.
Rayneo It may sound more, and it is a subsidiary of the Chinese giant TCL. He is working with Alibaba to take AI models to smart glasses and, for the 2028 Olympic Games, they plan collaborate with COI to create promotional videos in which the perspective of athletes (which will wear scratch glasses) is the protagonist.
A look at your website It lets us see that they are focused on markets beyond the Chinese, with the focus currently on the projection of content.
Rokid It is founded by an ex-alibaba, and manufactures glasses that use the QWAN model (precisely Alibaba) to translate into real time. It has enough state support, and works with national companies. Although it has a consumer product, it is quite focused on specific solutions.
Immobile He is one of China Mobile’s main collaborators in his attempt to develop one of the great national language models. Jiutian LLMone of the first models, and is being tested in the glasses of augmented reality of immobile. Their abilities are multimodal (voice, text, compression of what you are seeing), and the connection is direct by 5G to the cloud of China Mobile, without the mobile as an intermediary.
Finally we have Meizua historic Chinese manufacturer who tried in Spain with its mobiles but could not with Huawei and Xiaomi. The company has developed Llm Flyme a multimodal AI engine that vertebra both its XR devices and its connected car systems.
They also combine text, voice and visual recognition, integrated in recent launch glasses, such as their Starv Air 2. A company recently acquired by the Geely engine giant, with expansion plans outside China.
The keys to winning this format race
Although Google has put the platform on the table and has set your hand to companies that want to collaborate with it, this It is still a war to dispute And in which there are still no proposals for attack to the generalist public, beyond the first goal approach with Rayban … with glasses that do not even execute augmented reality.
Google has important strategic advantages: its Android ecosystem is unbeatable in mobile penetration (an still key element that will live with the first gene generations), and Gemini is one of the most advanced models of the moment, Even ahead of Openai’s proposals.
But, despite not being generating so much media noise, China still has important advantages in manufacturing, implementation speed and a more lax regulation compared to the European, especially jealous in relation to data processing.
The career for semiconductors It will have a lot to do in this race. USA Constantly access To its most advanced technologies, and China accelerates so that its full technological independence does not reveal an unknown position against that of its main rivals.
Image | XREAL
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