Is Meta losing the AI glasses race? Discover how Chinese tech giants repurposed Apple's old supply chain to undercut Ray-Ban Meta and lead the global market.
> The feature list [for smart glasses] is familiar: real-time translation
I noticed this when I was walking around Huaqiangbei. The product that everyone wanted to sell was real-time translation. Do you have a sense for why this is? Is it a particularly high margin feature or just more real world practical than everything else is at the moment?
As the author of the article I think this is the most practical use for Chinese to quickly understand the foreign language. We need to make glasses useful after all.
I see people making smart glasses, but there are 2 big issues. 1. What are the real world uses, that the ave consumer wants? 2. there may be a marketing/creep factor in some countries.
Have we really thought about this?
There are good uses. I can see using them for realtime translation, realtime labeling of trees/streets/tell you what you are looking at and where you are.... , .... but there are also worries like cheating in classes, videoing women without consent, videoing in bars when people are intoxicated, videoing in court when the judge has said "no cameras", identifying people without consent by facial recognition (police/govt/PI/neighborhood watch/etc), corporate espionage, ....
Wearable tech definitely has its uses. Like you said, real-time translation is gonna be a big thing for non-english speakers. But right now, it’s still a niche market.
IDC forecasts that China’s AI glasses shipments will approach 5 million units this year. Clearly, we are seeing a smart glasses market boom. However, in real life, I don’t see many people actually wearing them, so it could be a hype.
That said, I think wearables are here to stay. The first Apple Watch focused heavily on social features and luxury, which turned out to be a big flop. But after they shifted their focus to sports and health, sales got better. There’s always a learning curve for new tech.
As for your second question, tech companies are trying to block unauthorized or suspicious recording, but you still see news about this happening all the time. We’ve covered some in our notes as well.
Ultimately, when it comes to AI glasses in particular, I don’t think we should ditch technological innovation just because of potential harm. It will require both legislators and tech companies to work together to limit these creepy edge cases.
I agree. There are valuable wins possible from this technology, and it would be a shame to lose them due to poor PR. But marketing will be needed. Remember the glasshole commentary that sort of killed Google Glasses? (and the high price, of course)
> The feature list [for smart glasses] is familiar: real-time translation
I noticed this when I was walking around Huaqiangbei. The product that everyone wanted to sell was real-time translation. Do you have a sense for why this is? Is it a particularly high margin feature or just more real world practical than everything else is at the moment?
As the author of the article I think this is the most practical use for Chinese to quickly understand the foreign language. We need to make glasses useful after all.
I see people making smart glasses, but there are 2 big issues. 1. What are the real world uses, that the ave consumer wants? 2. there may be a marketing/creep factor in some countries.
Have we really thought about this?
There are good uses. I can see using them for realtime translation, realtime labeling of trees/streets/tell you what you are looking at and where you are.... , .... but there are also worries like cheating in classes, videoing women without consent, videoing in bars when people are intoxicated, videoing in court when the judge has said "no cameras", identifying people without consent by facial recognition (police/govt/PI/neighborhood watch/etc), corporate espionage, ....
Wearable tech definitely has its uses. Like you said, real-time translation is gonna be a big thing for non-english speakers. But right now, it’s still a niche market.
IDC forecasts that China’s AI glasses shipments will approach 5 million units this year. Clearly, we are seeing a smart glasses market boom. However, in real life, I don’t see many people actually wearing them, so it could be a hype.
That said, I think wearables are here to stay. The first Apple Watch focused heavily on social features and luxury, which turned out to be a big flop. But after they shifted their focus to sports and health, sales got better. There’s always a learning curve for new tech.
As for your second question, tech companies are trying to block unauthorized or suspicious recording, but you still see news about this happening all the time. We’ve covered some in our notes as well.
Ultimately, when it comes to AI glasses in particular, I don’t think we should ditch technological innovation just because of potential harm. It will require both legislators and tech companies to work together to limit these creepy edge cases.
I agree. There are valuable wins possible from this technology, and it would be a shame to lose them due to poor PR. But marketing will be needed. Remember the glasshole commentary that sort of killed Google Glasses? (and the high price, of course)
yeah, I think right now, the pr stays in china. It's decent so far.