Alibaba has begun selling its first smart glasses equipped with Qwen AI models. The launch marks a rare foray into the consumer hardware market.
The new Quark S1 glasses have built-in transparent displays that overlay contextual information over the user’s view of the surrounding environment. Equipped with cameras, bone conduction microphones and 24-hour replaceable batteries, the new product aims to offer the Chinese market something similar to Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses line.
This represents an extension of Alibaba’s ambitious reorganization into an AI-focused company. The company made a splash with the launch of the Qwen app last week, which consolidated various consumer AI services into one updated software that quickly attracted more than 10 million users.
This week, the company’s CEO, Eddie Wu, said that the company has seen “exceptional user retention” with the new launch. Alibaba has also integrated the Qwen suite into its Quark desktop browser and is now expanding its reach with the Quark line of wearables.
Along with the S1, which starts at 3,799 yuan (R$2,869.76), Alibaba will offer the Quark G1 model for 1,899 yuan (R$1,434.50) which ditches the small OLED displays. Both are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon AR1 platform, a chip designed specifically for augmented reality glasses that includes neural processing units for AI tasks.
The S1 is now available for purchase on Alibaba’s Tmall, JD.com, ByteDance’s Douyin website, and more than 600 stores in 82 cities in China. International versions will launch next year, with some available on platforms like AliExpress, according to a spokesperson for Alibaba’s Quark unit.
Smart glasses, especially those that provide artificial intelligence features such as mirroring, have spread in China over the past year. Many of them are startups, like Even Realities, that aim to improve on traditional glasses rather than reinvent them.
Market tracker IDC recorded 1.6 million shipments of smart glasses in China this year through September. Xiaomi accounted for nearly a third of that. This number rises to more than 2 million units when including glasses with integrated screens.
“Alibaba’s entry will undoubtedly bring new dynamism to the competitive landscape of China’s smart glasses market,” said Sophie Pan, research director at IDC.
More recently, Meta’s $799 pair of Ray-Ban Display glasses showed a more ambitious approach to the category, with built-in displays and a separate wristband for gesture control. The most advanced Meta model is larger, heavier and more expensive than usual, but it charts a promising development path.
Alibaba is integrating many features of its key ecosystem with the new Quark devices, including Taobao marketplace, travel booking platform Fliggy, and payments via Alipay. The company has also established partnerships with neighboring Hangzhou-based NetEase and Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings to offer its music services, NetEase Cloud Music and QQ Music.