XREAL AR Smart Glasses to Tackle Meta, Apple Vision Pro during 2024 Holiday Period

XREAL looks to take a lead in the growing smart glasses market, taking Meta and Apple head on during Q4 2024

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XREAL AR Smart Glasses to Tackle Meta, Apple Vision Pro during 2024 Holiday Period
Augmented RealityLatest News

Published: October 8, 2024

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Rory Greener

This week, XREAL revealed that it is continuing its now multi-year global AR smart glasses expansion and adoption journey, which started in Chinese territories before seeing adoption in Western markets. 

The most recent expansion milestone sees XREAL securing new retail deals for its AR smart glasses product in global markets, including Europe, Asia, and the US. 

Jon Li, General Manager of the US, XREAL added:  

XREAL products amaze people the moment they put them on. This significant retail expansion in the US, Europe, and Asia makes it easier than ever for new customers to experience the XREAL magic. We are appreciative of our retail partners for sharing in our vision to bring AR to everyone and their role in making that a new reality. We can’t wait for you to find your nearest XREAL retail partner and experience the magic for yourself.  

To expand further into European markets, namely luxury department stores, XREAL is extending its partnership with pre-existing collaborator Smartech Retail Group in an effort to scale the in-store availability of its AR smart glasses. 

The Smartech Retail Group partnership sees XREAL grow its retail presence in London, UK, from one store to five while also introducing in-store availability in Paris, Berlin, and Rome. Moreover, Smartech Retail Group will help XREAL continue to scale in US regions, namely in New York City, leading into 2025.

Nathalie Bernce, Co-Founder and CEO of Smartech explained that the firm is “doubling down on XREAL stock for the holidays.” 

Bernce also said: 

XREAL’s glasses are in high demand, and our signals point to fiery growth over the holiday shopping season. We’re very excited to welcome XREAL to more Smartech stores in iconic cities around the world this fall, and to delight Smartech shoppers together in the months ahead. 

In addition to the Smartech Retail Group partnership expansion, Micro Center is also working with XREAL to further scale its product portfolio in US markets, covering over two dozen Micro Center stores in the region. 

In October, Micro Center will be selling XREAL products in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia. The multi-region expansion looks to follow a trial period in a tent pole Columbus, OH, Micro Center location, which XREAL undertook in the summer. 

Brad Kramer, CFO and co-COO for Micro Center, added:   

We are thrilled to expand our partnership with XREAL and bring their cutting-edge AR products to more customers. At Micro Center, we pride ourselves on offering the most innovative technology, and XREAL’s AR glasses fit perfectly with our mission to provide customers with immersive, hands-on experiences.

Finally, XREAL is expanding its Japanese presence by improving customer access to its products via hands-on in-store demonstrations – similar to Vision Pro’s in-store demos, seen earlier in the year.

XREAL is working with SoftBank C&S to improve Japan’s in-store customer experience and boost the retail performance of its smart glasses. The firm is achieving this goal by launching 46 unique experience zones in major retail spaces to increase customer familiarity with AR and XREAL products.

XREAL notes that it is also expanding to new nationwide stores, including BIC CAMERA, Yodobashi Camera, EDION, Joshin, Kojima, and Sofmap—with BIC CAMERA and Yodobashi Camera supporting the customer experience zones.

The end of the year appears fruitful for XREAL. To mark the retail scaling roadmap, XREAL is lowering the price of its devices in the US, with the XREAL Air lowering to $197 USD and the XREAL Air 2 Pro to $399. This seemingly aims to steal the holiday season from competitors Meta and Apple.

Can XREAL take on Meta and Apple?

The news comes on the heels of Connect 2024. At the event, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and Founder of Meta, unveiled a prototype for the much-hyped Orion device, a pair of AR smart glasses. Zuckerberg called the device “the most advanced glasses in the world and our first prototype of full holographic AR.”

Zuckerberg also revealed a major breakthrough: neural interface interaction. Orion enables users to interact with smart glasses using their brain’s electrical activity through a wrist device. Moreover, at Connect Zuckerberg showed off the Meta Quest 3S, an MR device similar to the Quest 3 but cheaper and lighter.

Meta has announced that pre-orders for the 3S will begin at $299.99 for the 128GB model and $399.99 for the 256GB model. Notably, Meta highlighted how the Quest 3S can support workplace productivity applications such as a virtual desktop.

The Meta Quest 3S will feature capabilities including a high-quality 4K display, a Fresnel lens system, and a full-color passthrough. Additionally, the headset will come with specifications such as a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR Gen 2 chipset, 8GB of RAM, hard-tracking, and Touch Plus controllers.

The Connect news is important in terms of XREAL’s recent global retail scaling effort because the Meta Quest 3S is looking to bring augmented and mixed reality experience to an increased customer base during the holiday period, at the same time Meta also scaling its smart glasses efforts by showcasing the future of Orion and simultaneously scaling the market presence of its Ray-Ban smart glasses in time for the holiday period-with Meta notably rising its investments into Ray Ban by buying a 5 per cent stake in its parent firm; showing a massive air of confidence in the firm’s belief in AR smart glasses.

While the Orion is nowhere near market avaliblity. XREAL is clearly leveraging the AR smart glasses and MR passthrough hype which Meta is pushing, in order to take a lead in the AR smart glasses race this holiday period.

On the other hand, Apple is still present in this race. While the Vision Pro prices out a large number of buyers, rumours of cheaper products are swelling-however Apple could still lower prices or boost market visibility of the device leading into the December period.

But does XREAL have the means to take on Meta/Apple in this race? The answer is yes.

While XREAL is somewhat lesser known than the big names in the race, it is seeing big success with its portfolio, which is a clear competitor for Meta and Apple.

XREAL keenly highlights that since it started shipping AR smart glasses in 2021, the firm has experienced roughly 430,000 shipments of its XR product, which has led to XREAL gaining a “47.3 per cent market share for the global AR industry in H1 2024,” the firm stated.

Moreover, the firm’s global expansion goals come after the firm already experienced retail success in the chosen regions. Notably, in the UK, XREAL saw large-scale sales figures in Selfridges London, a Smartech Retail Group location, with its Air 2 Pro product doubling sales forecasts and selling out.

The AR smart glasses market is still so early in its development, true market leaders will not be clear yet, but as the second half of the decade approaches the leaders will also emerge.

AR Smart GlassesRetailWearables

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