Upon entering the Super Brand Mall in Shanghai's central Pudong district on Tuesday, the two-story Huawei store was crowded with people. Known primarily for its smartphones, the Huawei store had employees focused on marketing a different product: smart glasses. Among five models displayed, ranging from horn-rimmed to rimless, putting on the one with the thinnest frame triggered an alarm on a smartphone displayed alongside. Music and Chinese voice guidance then came through, much like bone-conduction earphones. In front of these products, Huawei's electric vehicles (EVs), the "R7" and "S7," were displayed side by side.
"These smart glasses are voice-recognition-only products that allow camera shooting and music listening," a Huawei employee said. "When new models are released, they will also connect with cars."
The Huawei store is not the only place where smart glasses can be seen at Super Brand Mall. At a food court featuring the popular local restaurant "Dian Dude" and beverage franchise "Heytea," both known to Korean tourists, people were wearing headset-style smart devices and playing shooting games. Products similar to Samsung Electronics' (005930.KS) Galaxy XR, unveiled last year, have already been commercialized for entertainment use.
China has been accelerating the spread of smart glasses this year. At the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress last month, Premier Li Qiang emphasized "a new form of smart economy" and stressed the promotion of next-generation smart devices. Earlier, starting in January, the Chinese government included AI glasses in its national subsidy program for the first time, providing up to 500 yuan (approximately 110,000 won) per product. The industry interprets this as the full-scale activation of the Chinese government's strategy to ensure that Chinese smart glasses, like smartphones, televisions, and EVs, continue to grow in the domestic market and gain global competitiveness.
The reason even China's second-in-command has stepped forward to promote "a new generation of terminals" is that with the development of AI and extended reality (XR) technologies, the era of searching for information, watching videos, and shopping in the "palm of your hand" through smartphones is shifting to "right before your eyes." The turning point predicted by Tesla founder Elon Musk, who claimed that "smartphones will disappear within five to six years" and be replaced by AI-based "edge nodes" (data-using devices), is arriving faster than expected.
US big tech firms have already entered the smart glasses market and are securing global market leadership. According to market research firm Omdia, approximately 8.7 million AI smart glasses were shipped worldwide last year. Of these, Meta of the United States sold about 7.4 million units (85.2%) based on its domestic market, recording an overwhelming first place.
Second-place Rokid of China (340,000 units, 3.9%) and third-place Xiaomi (300,000 units, 3.5%) trailed Meta by roughly 20 to 25 times. Behind the Chinese government's accelerated push for smart glasses lies a sense of urgency that it cannot afford to cede leadership to US companies in a global market projected to grow to $200 billion (approximately 300 trillion won) by 2040.
The prevailing view is that the ripple effects of smart glasses on the market will be far broader than those of smartphones. While the smartphone ecosystem, which replaced PCs and laptops, remained within palm-sized apps, smart glasses can freely perform payments and shopping through voice recognition and hand gestures. In particular, they are evolving into devices that can integrate smart homes controlling household appliances, future mobility such as navigation, and industrial site control into one.
The industry also observes that just as the app ecosystem expanded in the past, once smart glasses build an XR-based ecosystem of shopping, video, and advertising content that goes beyond augmented reality (AR) to include virtual reality (VR), they will completely replace smartphones.
Industry leader Meta, as well as Google, which plans to release its own smart glasses this year, are accelerating efforts to preempt the future market based on powerful AI. Google in particular has platforms capable of controlling homes and industrial sites, such as Google Home and Android Enterprise.
Samsung Electronics is signaling a major counterattack, preparing to unveil "Galaxy Glass" worldwide as early as July. Samsung Electronics already connects 400 million AI devices worldwide, including Galaxy smartphones and home appliances, and plans to expand this to 800 million this year.
In addition, by operating semiconductor and home appliance factories around the world, Samsung has the foundation to expand smart glasses into manufacturing. Furthermore, it is broadening its ecosystem into mobility, launching a "Car-to-Home" service with Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) and Kia (000270.KS), which together sell more than 8 million vehicles per year. Samsung is focusing on a strategy to lead the global market in smart glasses, just as it does in smartphones, with Galaxy Glass combined with Google Gemini.
