Meta’s latest smart glasses have nearly sold out across retail platforms. Sales of the Ray-Ban Display model have surpassed two million units. Meanwhile, Apple is reportedly planning to enter the smart glasses segment within the next 12–16 months, starting with a screenless version.
Quark’s glasses went on presale at midnight on October 24 via its official Tmall store, while Rokid has raised more than USD 3.6 million through crowdfunding, setting a new record in the artificial intelligence and augmented reality category.
Smart glasses have resurfaced repeatedly since their debut a decade ago. Products such as AR and virtual reality headsets have already cycled through multiple hype phases. This time, with support from large language models, they are once again viewed as the potential gateway to intelligent computing, and major firms are now moving to seize.
The first signs of a new wave often come from upstream suppliers. Founded in 2019, Greatar has become one of the most recognized makers of AR diffractive waveguides, supplying major consumer electronics companies, internet platforms, and startups. Alibaba is among its clients, using Greatar’s solution for Quark. As early as 2023, Greatar built the industry’s first fully automated production line for diffractive waveguides.
“This year, we’ve seen an unusually high number of large orders,” said Meng Xiangfeng, founder of Greatar. “Individual orders now exceed 100,000 units, something that has never happened before in this industry.”
Before the rise of generative AI, the sector was still struggling to find direction, betting on a distant future. “AI saved this industry,” Meng said. “To realize the metaverse, we’d need major breakthroughs in displays, chips, sensors, and batteries. Commercialization was nearly impossible.”
At this year’s China International Optoelectronic Expo (CIOE), AR and VR companies occupied an entire exhibition hall for the first time, which was something unthinkable in past years, when they had to share spaces.
The supply chain is also attracting capital. Greatar completed two funding rounds totaling more than RMB 100 million (USD 14 million) this year. Previously, it had raised several hundred million RMB from investors including Xiaomi, Oppo, and China Fortune-Tech Capital.
The market is always right
At CIOE, 36Kr tested a pair of smart glasses using Greatar’s waveguide lenses. They felt as light as regular eyewear, with a standard black plastic frame. Through the lenses, the world split in two: pedestrians walking by in real life and a faint line of text hovering in midair, marking a virtual boundary.
That balance is difficult to achieve. Consumer adoption has long been constrained by the optical module, which accounts for more than 40% of total costs and directly affects form factor and display quality.
Today, AR optics are shifting from birdbath solutions—known for large projected displays—to waveguide solutions, which are much smaller and thinner. Among these, diffractive waveguides are Greatar’s main focus and the most widely used approach.
Diffractive waveguides work by etching gratings into glass to transmit light but suffer from two inherent flaws: light leakage and “rainbow” interference patterns caused by external light diffraction.
Greatar initially focused on high field-of-view, immersive AR optics. Its turning point came in 2022, when it secured a major contract for an AR glasses project. “Everyone was obsessed with improving brightness, optical efficiency, and image uniformity,” Meng said. “The client’s team was satisfied with the prototype, but when it reached their top executives, the first comment was about the rainbow effect. They didn’t care about specs, they cared about user experience.”
That experience reshaped Greatar’s priorities. The company shifted from chasing record optical metrics to developing waveguide lenses as clear as standard eyeglasses. It created technology that redirects stray light away from the eye, eliminating rainbow interference in 95% of real-world conditions. To further enhance transparency, Greatar refined its optical designs to achieve more than 98% light transmittance, with non-grating areas exceeding 99%, comparable to premium eyewear.
The company also holds a gradient grating patent that improves image uniformity and aesthetics, while its custom waveguide architecture minimizes light leakage.
“For AR glasses, comfort and usability matter more than lab metrics,” Meng said. “In B2B markets, technology can crush old methods, but in B2C, it’s all about the experience. A product with 85% comfort and 70% optical performance can already sell very well.”
That view aligns with current market dynamics. Until recently, AI-powered AR glasses struggled to gain traction due to immature hardware. Meta’s partnership with Ray-Ban bridged the gap between technical hardware and mainstream fashion. The Ray-Ban Display, launched in September, is Meta’s first consumer-grade smart glasses with a built-in display. Starting at USD 799, it sits in the premium range but has sold out across retail channels, with try-on appointments booked through November.
According to Wellsenn XR, 94% of all AI glasses sold globally in 2024 were camera-based models, nearly all from Meta.
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Meanwhile, the influence of tech giants remains strong. Meta’s success last year reshaped China’s market. This year, its display-equipped model has reinforced the trend.
For Greatar, its 100,000-unit orders mark just the beginning. Scaling diffractive waveguide production is the real challenge.
From the outset, Greatar adopted the IDM (integrated device manufacturing) model, linking design and production. This allows it to address waveguide defects through proprietary optical design and advanced materials processing. Greatar initially focused on monochrome solutions, which are lighter and more power-efficient, before upgrading to color once comfort is optimized.
Building a full-stack ecosystem for emerging technology was not easy. Early on, suppliers were hesitant to provide customized machinery due to small order sizes. “We had to convince them of our technical roadmap and future demand,” Meng said. “Now it’s the opposite: our early suppliers have become industry leaders themselves, thanks to the breakthroughs we achieved together.”
With IDM, Greatar gains advantages in efficiency, yield rate, and cost control, while many competitors still rely on semi-automated production. Its latest waveguide lens weighs just three grams and measures 0.5 millimeters thick, thinner than standard eyeglass lenses.
According to IDC, global shipments of display-free smart glasses are projected to reach 14.3 million units in 2025, up 39.2% year-on-year, and rise to 43.1 million units by 2029.
The Ray-Ban Display could redefine consumer expectations by making built-in screens the new standard. For optical waveguide suppliers such as Greatar, this signals a market that is set to expand even further.
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by Leslie Zhang for 36Kr.