Recently, the augmented reality (AR) hardware market has set off an investment and financing boom.
Li Shufu's Xingji Meizu has completed a total of 2 billion yuan in financing and recently released its first AR glasses; AR glasses manufacturer Hangzhou Rokid completed a new round of Series C financing last month, totaling approximately 800 million yuan; AR glasses manufacturer Rayneo received over 100 million yuan in financing; AR optical waveguide display device manufacturer Lipa Optical Crystal completed Series B financing, amounting to tens of millions of yuan...
Unlike the relative downturn in the VR (virtual reality) market, the AR market is booming. Data shows that the domestic AR consumer market sales in the third quarter were 52,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 125%; the AR market is expected to reach a new high in the fourth quarter.
Data source: China Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute
Consumer AR glasses have found clear user scenarios
When talking about the reasons for the recent active investment and financing in the AR hardware market, several leading domestic AR hardware manufacturers have stated that the product characteristics of AR itself and user needs are the core reasons.
Li Hongwei, founder and CEO of Thunderbird Innovation, pointed out that the products that have driven the rapid development of the market this year are mainly movie-viewing glasses; and the decisive factor in the rapid growth of the consumer AR glasses market is that such products have begun to find clear user scenarios. "AR has begun to cross the chasm." Li Hongwei said that looking to the longer-term future, another important increase in the AR market will come from MicroLED optical waveguide AR all-in-one machines with high transparency and brightness. "With a wide range of application scenarios, the low-cost way of receiving information brought by near-eye display technology and its portability, this type of AR glasses can be said to be the hardware with the most potential to become the next generation computing platform."
Thunderbird Innovation CEO Li Hongwei introduced its AR glasses products at the press conference
He Jie, founder and CEO of Suiguang Technology, told a reporter from China Electronics News that the reason why movie-viewing glasses have become a major pillar of the AR hardware market is because users have demand for lightweight and portable large-screen displays. At the same time, He Jie also pointed out that AR glasses, which currently occupy a dominant position in the AR market, are still a fast-moving electronic product and will develop towards a platform concept in the future.
In the view of Rokid co-founder Xiang Wenjie, the unique nature of AR products determines its market performance. Compared with VR, AR is superior in the interactive experience of spatial computing and the feeling of virtual and real integration. "As the next development direction after the era of personal computing and mobile computing, AR spatial computing can break the physical limitations of space, bring new ways of interaction, and cause new changes in production tools and productivity." Xiang Wenjie told a reporter from China Electronics News.
Industry experts believe that as a technology that can superimpose physical information, AR is more scalable in application, has better integration and stronger coupling with the existing hardware ecosystem.
User stickiness is the biggest challenge
Although the iterative development of AR hardware will take some time, investors are still optimistic about the future market development potential. In the future, AR hardware is likely to replace mobile phones and become a new generation of production tools.
Xiang Wenjie said: "The role of AR is to combine the real and virtual worlds, making people's perceptions richer and more complete. AR is gradually becoming a key interface for users to interact in the metaverse. Previously, everyone's focus on the virtual reality industry was more focused on VR, but now it is different. Everyone realizes that AR is the real personal computing terminal of the future."
He Jie also said that recognizing AR as the inevitable direction of the future and "buying the future" is one of the core reasons for investors to make investment decisions. However, he also admitted that although the data showed that investment and financing in AR companies continued in the second half of this year, the real situation is that investors’ enthusiasm for investing in the AR industry has declined.
According to reports, everyone’s expectations for the AR hardware industry have returned to a scientific and rational but long-term sustainable state. Against the background that the industry is generally more optimistic about the development prospects of the AR industry, companies with healthier and more stable operations will be more susceptible to capital investment and attention.
Although the AR market remains relatively active, it still faces difficulties and pain points that need to be overcome urgently. "Whether from the perspective of the consumer market, supply chain, or application ecology, the overall AR market is still in a relatively early stage." Li Hongwei told reporters. Xiang Wenjie also said that in the currently immature AR market, there is no precedent to learn from in terms of technology exploration or product development.
Xu Chi, founder and CEO of
Data source: China Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute
In addition to the objective conditions of the overall market environment, customers' subjective choice factors also bring challenges to the AR market. "Whether it is to B or to C, customer stickiness is the biggest difficulty in market development." He Jie said.
From the perspective of the business end, the competitors of VR and AR products are not other companies in the same industry, but traditional digital media platforms that are more convenient to use. At this stage, AR will incur unavoidable wearing costs during use. To make up for this disadvantage, it is necessary to create high value-added application scenarios.
From a consumer perspective, although AR can bring a different experience to users, experience cannot be "equated" with stickiness. Novel experiences can encourage users to consume once or at most twice, but it is difficult to transform into long-term usage habits.
Suiguang Technology CEO He Jie introduced its head-mounted display products
In response to user needs, Xiang Wenjie proposed a clear development direction: "To cater to the needs of front-line users, we must 'hide' technology behind the product. How to define and innovate products around users is the difficulty in the market. "
Overseas markets are a major target
Unlike the active domestic AR hardware market, the overseas AR hardware market is relatively sluggish. The reporter learned that in 2023, many overseas AR manufacturers have implemented layoff plans: AR contact lens manufacturer Mojo Lens announced a layoff of 75%; Microsoft announced the layoff of AR head-mounted display HoloLens business employees; Niantic reorganized and laid off 230 people and closed some studios... In addition, manufacturers such as Google have also suspended the development of AR hardware-related projects.
Against this background, domestic AR hardware manufacturers have begun to actively explore overseas markets.
After cooperating with LG U+, one of South Korea's three major telecom operators, and combining AR glasses with 5G mobile phone sales strategies to achieve success, XREAL has joined forces with telecom operators in the United States, Japan, Switzerland, Germany and other countries to enter the local market. At the end of October, a high-profile new product was released on the London landmark "London Eye" Ferris wheel, officially entering the British market.
Rokid AR glasses achieved “domination” during the overseas Amazon “Black Friday” promotion, and Japan’s largest telecom operator NTT Docomo also officially announced that it will cooperate with Rokid to sell its AR product packages. Xiang Wenjie told reporters: "Currently, Rokid's AR products have entered Docomo's online store and its 261 offline stores across Japan." According to reports, Rokid will continue to accelerate the expansion of overseas markets.
"The consumer AR glasses market will have a market size similar to that of smartphones in the future, so the layout must also target the global market." This is Li Hongwei's judgment on the future development of the AR market. He said that currently, Thunderbird’s innovative AR products have been officially put on overseas e-commerce platforms for sale.
RokidAR glasses product promotion picture
Exploring the global market is the common vision of domestic AR hardware manufacturers. Experts pointed out that, on the one hand, from the perspective of ecological integration with existing smart hardware, foreign smart hardware is currently still in a relatively leading position in terms of product brand agency; on the other hand, from the perspective of user demand, overseas users are relatively more receptive to AR glasses due to various factors such as consumption concepts and economic income levels.
Facing the starry sea of next-generation computing platforms, the journey of AR has just begun.
RELATED NEWS
- At Infocomm2021, many black technologies will be shown for the first time in Chi 2026-05-28
- Through the screen, see Leyard’s focus and innovation 2026-05-28
- Inventronics expects net profit of 75.29 million-83.21 million in the first half 2026-05-28
- Samsung gradually withdraws from the LCD market, panel double tigers will play i 2026-05-28
- Alto Electronics passed the five-star certification of the "Commodity After-sale 2026-05-28
CATEGORIES
LATEST NEWS
CONTACT US
Contact: mack
Phone: 13352972563
E-mail: mack@archled.net
Add: 3rd Floor, Building A, Mingjinhai Second Industrial Zone, Shiyan Street, Baoan, Shenzhen,Guangdong,China
ANNA