Alibaba launches $659 Quark AI smart glasses to challenge Meta

Alibaba has launched pre-orders for its Quark AI smart glasses, priced at $659 and available in China starting October 24. The glasses represent the Chinese tech giant’s first consumer-facing AI product and position the company to compete directly with Meta’s successful Ray-Ban smart glasses in a market projected to reach $4.1 billion by 2030.

What you should know: The Quark AI glasses integrate deeply with Alibaba’s existing ecosystem of services, powered by the company’s Qwen large language model.
• The glasses connect with Amap for navigation, Alipay for payments, Taobao for price comparisons, and Fliggy for travel bookings.
• Like other smart glasses, they support standard features including calls, music streaming, and language translation.
• Orders placed through Tmall for 4,699 yuan ($659) will ship in December.

The big picture: Alibaba’s entry into consumer AI hardware reflects a broader industry trend toward smart glasses development, with companies betting on wearable AI as the next major computing platform.
• The Qwen large language model (the AI brain powering the glasses) already has over 400 million downloads and 140,000 derivative downloads, giving Alibaba a solid AI foundation for the product.
• Industry analysts predict the smart glasses market will grow by 29.4% annually from 2024 to 2030, reaching a valuation of $4.1 billion.

Competitive landscape: Meta has established early dominance in the smart glasses space, with Ray-Ban sales tripling over the past year according to EssilorLuxottica, the eyewear company that partners with Meta.
• Meta recently unveiled new smart glasses models at Meta Connect, including second-generation Ray-Bans, Oakley Vanguard, and Meta Display variants.
• The success is driven by AI advancements alongside improvements in eye and gesture tracking, augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) capabilities, and growing consumer adoption.

Why this matters: The launch marks Alibaba’s strategic shift from primarily business-focused products to consumer AI hardware, potentially opening new revenue streams in the rapidly expanding wearable technology market.
• Alongside the glasses, Alibaba launched a new AI Chat Assistant within the Quark app for conversations and queries.
• The move positions Alibaba to leverage its extensive service ecosystem through a new hardware interface, potentially creating stronger user engagement and data collection opportunities.