What are the actual application scenarios for AR glasses—multitasking office work, spatial applications, or 3D photography? In reality, most AR glasses manufacturers have been troubled by these "pseudo needs." At the launch event for the LeiNiao Innovation Air3 series on October 28th, Li Hongwei, the founder and CEO of LeiNiao Innovation, shared a set of user research data: 91% of users of standalone AR glasses primarily use the glasses for watching movies and playing games.
Li Hongwei told reporters, "This result reveals the true needs of users; the vast majority of users wish to use AR glasses to experience immersive entertainment rather than complex multitasking applications. However, it is regrettable that there are many AR companies on the market that invest 90% of their R&D efforts into scenarios that users engage with only 9% of the time, which actually moves away from user needs."
Real needs are better than castles in the air.
As 2024 draws to a close, the AR glasses market continues to maintain strong growth momentum.
According to Counterpoint data, the shipment volume of AR smart glasses in China increased by 64% year-on-year in 2023. At the same time, data from market research firm IDC also shows that China's AR shipments reached 240,000 units in 2023, a 133.9% increase from the previous year. Although the statistical methods of the two market research institutions differ, they represent the growth trend of AR glasses.
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At the same time, this year, tech giants such as Google, Meta, Apple, and PICO have all increased their investments in the field, and a number of mobile phone manufacturers have also begun to enter the AR domain, attempting to find scenarios that can replace smartphones. Data from LeiNiao Labs shows that the real usage scenarios for AR glasses users are as follows: movie watching accounts for 59%, gaming accounts for 32%, while the spatial applications, 3D photography, and multitasking scenarios that AR glasses manufacturers have been emphasizing only account for 9%.
Li Hongwei stated, "We have found that users often enjoy using AR glasses on the sofa, on high-speed trains, and during travel, to enjoy the experience. And data from thousands of surveys conducted by LeiNiao show that 91% of users of standalone AR glasses will ultimately only use the glasses for two things: watching movies and playing games. In fact, they just want to watch a blockbuster movie or engage in a competitive game. In the current year of 2024, we believe that standalone AR glasses should be more down-to-earth in bringing an enhanced experience to users, rather than building castles in the air."
The most important aspects of watching movies and playing games are visual experiences. Most AR glasses on the market currently use a Micro OLED+Birdbath solution. The optical engine of the Birdbath solution is mainly composed of a micro display, a spherical mirror/combiner, and a beam splitter, which together form the optical path system. Among these, the micro display determines the picture quality, and the optical path system ensures that the image projected into the eye is as close as possible to the display effect of the micro display. For standalone AR glasses using the Birdbath solution, the most important thing currently is to accurately meet the actual needs of users. The characteristic of Birdbath is good display quality, and the core motivation for users to purchase such products is for watching movies and playing games; therefore, product design should also focus on enhancing the experience in these two major scenarios.
The newly released Air 3 series from LeiNiao Innovation still chooses the Birdbath solution. "The positioning of Air 3 is very clear, that is, to abandon all other pseudo-need scenarios and focus on the users' movie-watching and gaming experiences, to create the next generation of audio-visual AR glasses' ceiling." In Li Hongwei's view, current AR glasses have not yet matured to the point where they can completely replace smartphones, and there is still a way to go before they truly become mainstream intelligent terminals.
Entering the "thousand-yuan device" era.Focusing on specific scenarios not only optimizes user experience but also effectively reduces hardware and R&D costs. Although the AR glasses market is booming, prices in the thousands of dollars have deterred many consumers. Vision Pro, which is seen as leading AR glasses into the "iPhone moment," is priced as high as $3,499; Meta unveiled its first AR glasses prototype, codenamed Orion, at the 2024 MetaConnect conference, with a cost as high as $10,000.
Compared to the tens of thousands of dollars in overseas prices, domestic mainstream consumer-grade AR glasses manufacturers have been trying to lower product prices, but they are still concentrated in the 2,000 to 3,000 yuan price range, with few thousand-yuan devices appearing.
Lei Niao Air 3 was the first to bring the price of a split-type AR glasses into under 2,000 yuan, priced at 1,699 yuan. Li Hongwei, using Tesla as an example, said: "As the leader in electric vehicles, Tesla, in addition to continuously exploring autonomous driving and robotics, has leveraged its position as an industry leader to drive down costs across the entire industry. This has allowed Tesla to produce models like the Model 3, which are affordable and beneficial to the public. It is these models that have brought about a comprehensive explosion in the electric vehicle industry, from sales to the industry as a whole."
Lei Niao Innovation believes that the popularity of AR glasses depends not only on the advancement of technology but also on whether the entire industry can provide products that are both cost-effective and widely applicable, truly allowing everyone to easily experience the innovative lifestyle brought by AR.
"Consumer-grade AR glasses" are still a new industrial direction, and how to make consumers better accept and integrate this technology is the primary problem that major brands need to solve. While many brands choose to pile up complex functions and increase multi-tasking applications in their products, which are "pseudo needs," Lei Niao Innovation has turned to focus more on the "movie + game" experience, entering the market at a lower price. Will Lei Niao Innovation bring the "Lei Niao Effect" to the industry?
Angel investor and artificial intelligence expert Guo Tao said that although the price of thousand-yuan AR glasses is more acceptable to consumers, if Lei Niao Innovation enters the market at a low price and receives a good response, other manufacturers may follow suit to compete for market share. Cost control is key; price reduction needs to effectively control costs, such as by leveraging economies of scale and optimizing the supply chain. The maturity of technology also affects manufacturers' decisions because low prices may sacrifice some quality and performance, so its maturity and reliability need to be considered. Different brand strategies are also a factor; some brands focus on the high-end market and will not easily reduce prices. Furthermore, the greater the market competition pressure, the more likely manufacturers are to attract consumers through price reductions.
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