Xiaomi AI Glasses are about to be released, sparking a market frenzy triggered by an "old account."

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Following the Xiaomi SU7, Lei Jun's next big hit is the upcoming Xiaomi AI Glasses.

In 2024, the AI glasses market is almost entirely dominated by Ray-Ban Meta, but with the collective efforts and influx of Chinese manufacturers, 2025 will see a concentrated explosion of AI glasses products.

Among these Chinese manufacturers, Xiaomi undoubtedly stands out. Whether considering Xiaomi's brand positioning, vast user base, or well-established market channels, as well as its experience in AI + hardware implementation, the release of Xiaomi AI Glasses is expected to elevate the Chinese AI glasses market to a new level.

Xiaomi AI Glasses are about to be released, sparking a market frenzy triggered by an "old account."

With the imminent release of Xiaomi AI Glasses, market rumors are rampant.

Although Wang Hua, General Manager of Xiaomi Group's Public Relations Department, recently issued an urgent clarification stating that "the official Xiaomi glasses account was registered years ago and is not newly launched," this response has instead left greater room for market speculation. It is evident from his very official wording that Wang did not directly deny the possibility of a product release, only emphasizing that the account is not new, hinting that related developments may still be in progress.

Additionally, during this period, news that Xiaomi AI Glasses have passed the network access license from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (model M2442G1) has also been widely circulated. However, Wang did not respond to this, seemingly indicating everything quietly.

In fact, as early as November 2024, there were reports in the industry about Xiaomi collaborating with GoerTek to develop a new generation of AI glasses, planned for release during the 2025 Mi Fan Festival, with Lei Jun estimating annual sales of Xiaomi AI Glasses to exceed 300,000 units.

According to supply chain sources last year, Xiaomi AI Glasses may be divided into two versions: one equipped with a camera module and a basic version focused on audio interaction (possibly an early testing version), targeting the mass market.

Moreover, the glasses will feature some innovative designs aimed at enhancing the battery life of the AI glasses. This strategy essentially continues Xiaomi's original "extreme cost-performance" gene for 3C products while directly competing with Ray-Ban Meta in terms of product capability.

Why are AI Glasses becoming Xiaomi's next incremental choice?

Xiaomi is entering the AI glasses market in search of new growth.

Since its establishment in 2010, Xiaomi, which started with internet smartphones, has developed rapidly, with its latest data showing a market value exceeding one trillion, officially entering the global top 100 companies list, surpassing giants like Huawei, Panasonic, and LG.

Behind Xiaomi Group's continuous growth is, on one hand, the significant investment in research and development of various technologies and ecosystems centered around smartphones, and on the other hand, the "Xiaomi Grocery Store." The "Xiaomi Grocery Store" encompasses a wide range of IoT and consumer products, which play a crucial role in Xiaomi Group's revenue, as can be seen from the group's Q3 2024 financial report.

Xiaomi Group's Q3 2024 financial report shows that its revenue from IoT and consumer products reached 26.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.3%, with a gross margin of 20.8%, up 3.5 percentage points year-on-year; in contrast, smartphone revenue reached 47.5 billion yuan, but the gross margin has dropped to 11.7%, down 4.9 percentage points year-on-year. Additionally, the newly launched smart electric vehicle business is also quite prominent, with business revenue reaching 9.7 billion yuan, a quarter-on-quarter increase of 52.3%.

Therefore, as the smartphone market has already peaked and gross margins continue to decline, continuously expanding the "Xiaomi Grocery Store" centered around the Xiaomi ecosystem to increase revenue and profits has become a necessary option for Xiaomi's sustained growth.

In the lineup of "Xiaomi Grocery Store," past consumer electronics logic has almost always revolved around smartphones and Xiao Ai speakers for ecological expansion. Coupled with the growing consumer demand for smart wearable devices and the deep application trend of AI technology in portable devices, AI glasses are undoubtedly a prime choice.

AI glasses align with Xiaomi's strategic need for business growth and the expansion of scenarios centered around smartphones. On one hand, glasses, as the closest wearable device to human senses, have a natural advantage in first-person perspective information collection and AI voice interaction. Based on smartphone computing power and AI cloud interaction, various diversified AI scenarios such as real-time translation, image recognition, intelligent search, and personal assistants can be expanded.

On the other hand, with Ray-Ban Meta's sales exceeding one million units in 2024, the demand potential for "lightweight AI glasses" has been validated, while the Chinese AI glasses market is still in its infancy, offering significant growth potential. Research firm IDC predicts that global AI glasses shipments will reach 12.8 million units in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 26%. Among them, the shipment volume of the Chinese AI glasses market in 2025 is expected to be 2.8 million units, with a staggering year-on-year growth of 107%.

From "AR Exploration Version" to the realization of "AI Glasses," Xiaomi has been building momentum for a long time.

In fact, like Meta, Xiaomi has long been laying out its strategy in the next-generation computing platform AR technology (excluding the Mijia ecosystem products). As early as 2021, Xiaomi released a concept product for AR glasses using Micro-LED and diffractive waveguides; in 2023, Xiaomi officially announced the Xiaomi Wireless AR Glasses Exploration Version, based on Micro-OLED and freeform optics.

From a technological maturity perspective, the AR glasses products released by Xiaomi in previous years have already demonstrated a high degree of feasibility, and there are many similar products from startups available in the market. However, Xiaomi has not rushed into commercialization; for large companies, entering an industry without a blockbuster product can carry a high opportunity cost.

It wasn't until the AIGC wave and the explosion of Ray-Ban Meta that Xiaomi became more convinced of this track. Although the AI glasses to be released in 2025 are a "simplified version" of the previous AR glasses, with the support of generative AI, they can already provide numerous practical scenarios through voice and camera sensors. More importantly, AI glasses are seen by Xiaomi as a fully commercializable C-end product.

For Xiaomi, AI glasses, like Meta's approach to smart glasses, can also be viewed as a transitional product to future AR glasses. From a market trend perspective, there is a surge in demand for lightweight, portable, and efficient devices in the consumer electronics field, and AI glasses, with their initial explorations in voice interaction and first-person vision, perfectly align with this development direction, laying the foundation for user recognition and technological application towards a more functional and advanced AR glasses market.

Xiaomi monocular AR glasses

Additionally, it is worth noting that compared to ordinary startups, smartphone manufacturers indeed have certain technological advantages in making AI glasses. As emphasized in last year's article “AI Glasses | Easy to Enter Supply Chain, Hard to Find High-Quality Products”, for AI glasses like Ray-Ban Meta, "audio" and "image" are the two core components and the most challenging aspects of making glasses.

A simple "voice interaction" involves a series of audio algorithms and hardware combinations, such as multi-mic external collection and noise reduction. "Image capture" directly affects the reputation and market sales of a pair of glasses and must be taken seriously. Unlike smartphones, which have manual focus, AI glasses need to achieve full automatic focus, automatic color, and light sensitivity optimization adjustments, which can be quite stressful for startups. In this context, the choice of chips and cost considerations are also very important.

Technologies such as noise reduction algorithms, sound pickup algorithms, image algorithms, and AI voice interaction have already been explored and solidified by major smartphone manufacturers like Xiaomi in TWS headphones, smart speakers, and smartphones. Compared to startups, they have much less to adjust and can also achieve system-level permissions at the software ecosystem level, fully leveraging the smartphone ecosystem, thus possessing a strong technological advantage. This makes us even more eager to see what kind of technological differentiation Xiaomi's AI glasses will bring.

Xiaomi AI Glasses, the catalyst for breaking the deadlock in China's AI glasses market?

In 2025, the AI glasses track will be crowded with giants: Meta plans to launch six AI wearable devices within the year, while Samsung, Huawei, OPPO, Thunderbird Innovation, Meizu, Baidu, Rokid, and other manufacturers are also eyeing the market. In the face of the "battle of a hundred glasses" in the global market, the release of Xiaomi AI Glasses may trigger a catfish effect in the Chinese market.

From the market landscape, the current sales of AI glasses in China are far below those overseas, but industry enthusiasm is high. From a marketing perspective, the domestic market has always lacked a phenomenal blockbuster product like Ray-Ban Meta to enhance consumer awareness and increase user desire to purchase AI glasses.

Xiaomi's own brand advantage should not be underestimated. Over the years, Xiaomi has built a legend in consumers' minds with high-cost performance products and a rich ecosystem, and its vast user base provides a natural soil for promoting Xiaomi AI Glasses.

Against this market backdrop, Xiaomi AI Glasses' entry will undoubtedly further expand the market capacity of the domestic AI glasses industry, bringing a larger incremental market.

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