The AI glasses market is ripe for exploration and expansion, with Google’s strengths in building the Android platform giving it a distinct advantage over competitors when the company introduces its own solution. However, previous reports were doing the rounds, claiming that Google had zero intentions of launching its own pair, only to stumble upon an update, stating that the advertising giant has seemingly completed the development of its smart spectacles, with various manufacturers also named who will breathe life into the device.
Smart glasses shipments have already increased by 110 percent in H1 2025, with Google’s entry possibly eating into Meta’s market share
The ‘research and development’ phase of Google’s AI glasses is complete, with IT Home reporting that the company is currently undecided on whether to bring them to the market or not. The details mention that Quanta was responsible for the prototype design of the unnamed smart spectacles, while HTC was the contract manufacturer because of the latter’s experience with producing its own AI glasses called the VIVE Eagle, which shipped with a baked Chinese LLM and other decent specifications.
With the entire supply chain set up, it is only a matter of Google giving the green light and entering this market, which is currently dominated by Meta. Based on the data published by Counterpoint Research, global smart glasses shipments grew 110 percent year-over-year in the first half of 2025, with the entire momentum being carried by the Ray-Ban Meta model. As for AI smart glasses, these accounted for 78 percent of total shipments in H1 2025, up from 46 percent in H1 2024 and 66 percent in H2 2024.
The aforementioned statistics highlight a ton of opportunity for other players, with Meta having the upper hand with a 73 percent market share for the first half of 2025. Whenever Google decides to launch its version, the Android XR platform should provide better flexibility and a user experience to customers because their muscle memory will be retained when moving from a smartphone to a head-mounted wearable.
Source link