The smart glasses graveyard is littered with failed experiments, from Google Glass to Snap's Spectacles. But Chi Xu, founder and CEO of Xreal, thinks his company has cracked the code. Speaking after Google's recent partnership announcement, Xu declared that the smart glasses business has finally reached a turning point - a bold claim in an industry that's burned billions in investor cash and consumer goodwill over the past decade.
Xreal just made its biggest claim yet. Chi Xu, the company's founder and CEO, believes the smart glasses business has finally reached a turning point - and he's betting his company's Google partnership will prove it.
The timing isn't coincidental. Google recently showcased deeper Gemini AI integration across its hardware ecosystem at Google I/O, with smart glasses emerging as a key focus area. For Xreal, which has quietly shipped over 350,000 AR glasses units since 2021, the partnership represents validation in an industry where failure is the norm and success stories are rare.
"We've spent years figuring out what consumers actually want from smart glasses, not what Silicon Valley thinks they want," Xu told reporters. It's a not-so-subtle dig at the industry's checkered past - Google Glass famously flopped in 2015 amid privacy concerns and a $1,500 price tag, while Snap burned through multiple generations of Spectacles that never found product-market fit.
But something has shifted. Meta proved there's appetite for smart glasses with its Ray-Ban collaboration, which has moved over 700,000 units since launching in 2023. The key difference? Meta focused on audio, camera, and lightweight AI features rather than trying to cram a full AR display into eyewear. Consumers wanted glasses that felt normal, not cyborg gear.
Xreal took a different approach. The company's Air and Beam devices function primarily as portable displays - think Netflix on a plane or gaming on the go - rather than attempting to overlay digital information onto the real world. It's augmented reality without the reality part getting in the way, and it turns out that's exactly what early adopters wanted. The company generated roughly $150 million in revenue in 2024, according to industry estimates, making it one of the few profitable players in the space.
Now Google is bringing AI muscle to Xreal's hardware chops. The partnership, announced at Google I/O, will embed Gemini capabilities directly into Xreal's next-generation devices. That means real-time translation, visual search, and contextual assistance - the kind of features that could finally justify wearing computers on your face. "Google tried this before and learned expensive lessons," noted Avi Greengart, consumer technology analyst at Techsponential. "Partnering with Xreal lets them test the waters again without the PR nightmare of another Glass failure."
The competitive landscape is heating up fast. Apple is rumored to be developing lightweight AR glasses for a 2026 or 2027 launch, following its Vision Pro headset. Amazon quietly ships Alexa-enabled Echo Frames, though sales numbers remain undisclosed. Even Microsoft, after scaling back its HoloLens ambitions, is exploring enterprise smart glasses partnerships.
Xreal's advantage lies in its consumer focus and price point. While Meta's Ray-Ban glasses start at $299, Xreal's devices range from $379 to $699 - premium but not prohibitive. The company has built distribution partnerships with carriers and retailers across Asia, Europe, and North America, avoiding the direct-to-consumer slog that killed earlier startups.
But Xu's "turning point" claim faces serious tests. Smart glasses still struggle with battery life, social acceptance, and unclear use cases beyond niche scenarios. Privacy concerns haven't disappeared - they've just been temporarily forgotten. And the industry has heard "this time is different" before, usually right before another spectacular flameout.
What's changed is the AI timing. Large language models can now process visual information in real-time, translating signs, identifying objects, and answering contextual questions with shocking accuracy. That transforms smart glasses from a solution looking for a problem into a potentially useful interface for ambient computing. Google's Gemini integration gives Xreal access to some of the most advanced multimodal AI in the world - assuming the company can make it work in a form factor where every millimeter and milliwatt counts.
The broader question is whether consumers actually want faces full of technology. Meta's success with Ray-Ban suggests yes, but only if the tech is invisible and the glasses look normal. Xreal's current designs lean sci-fi, with prominent displays and chunky frames. The Google partnership might bring AI smarts, but it won't solve the fundamental fashion challenge that's torpedoed every smart glasses effort to date.
Industry shipments tell the story. The entire smart glasses market moved approximately 1.2 million units in 2024, according to IDC estimates - a rounding error compared to smartphones or even smartwatches. Xreal's 350,000 units make it a major player in an incredibly small pond. The turning point Xu sees requires that pond to become an ocean, and fast.
Xreal's confidence reflects real momentum in a category that's failed more often than it's succeeded. The Google partnership brings AI capabilities that could finally make smart glasses useful rather than just novel. But useful isn't the same as essential, and the industry still needs to prove consumers want this technology on their faces daily. Xu might be right about the turning point - or this could be another false dawn in tech's longest-running disappointment. The next 18 months will tell us which.
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