Entry level smartglasses have hit a nerve with consumers of late and Zuckerberg’s Ray-Ban glasses are gaining praise in the media. And now with demos from Meta’s project Orion AR glasses and Snap Inc’s AR Spectacles, the hype is high. Just last week we reported that former head of Meta’s Orion smartglasses project announced the she’s joining OpenAI’s hardware team.

With the hype around smartglasses growing, we now learn that China’s Baidu, that holds a dominant position in China’s search engine market and in AI is stepping into hardware, specifically smartglasses.

Baidu Inc. is set to unveil a pair of glasses with a built-in AI assistant, putting up a Chinese rival to the Meta Ray-Bans that have proven a rare success in AI-powered hardware.

According to Bloomberg, China’s Baidu plans to showcase the product at its annual Baidu World event in Shanghai next week. The gadget will reportedly have built-in cameras to capture photos and video and will support voice interactions built atop Baidu’s Ernie foundation model, the person said, asking not to be named as the glasses are not yet public.

The push to monetize AI has found expression in a series of hardware introductions this year, from the Humane Ai Pin flop to Microsoft Corp.’s better-received Copilot+ PC range. The Meta Platforms Inc. smart glasses, designed in collaboration with Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica SA, are an older product that’s grown in features, capabilities and popularity this year. Meta said demand had outpaced its ability to supply new units and EssilorLuxottica has singled them out as a product driving new sales.

Beijing-based Baidu is likewise working to capitalize on more than a decade of AI development, and its smart glasses will connect to a suite of products such as Baidu Maps and its online encyclopedia, Baike. Sales of the product, which will likely cost less than Meta’s $299, could start as soon as early 2025, the person said.

The next Chinese tech company to enter the AI driven smartglasses segment is rumored to be TikTok.

Last week Patently Apple posted a report titled “While Apple has been filing patents related to Smartglasses for over 7 years, the company now appears to be moving to the next phase.”

Apple has been working on very sophisticated smartglasses for over 7 years. So Apple isn’t behind in research and patents to protect their technology, just slower in bringing a product to market.

Smartglasses are becoming an excellent way to bring AI to consumers and it’s in Apple’s best interest to get their glasses to market sooner rather than later, considering that the Samsung/Google/Qualcomm alliance is hoping to bring an entry level smartglasses device to market in 2025 that will work with Android phones.