Alibaba launched its new Qwen smart glasses with 50-megapixel cameras at an event in Hangzhou on Tuesday. Priced from 2,999 yuan, these glasses rival Meta’s Ray-Ban models. Wu Jianjun said, “A higher-end Pro variant, priced at 3,499 yuan, also includes eye-tracking capabilities.” The device supports AI features and long battery life.
Alibaba has launched its new Qwen smart glasses with 50-megapixel cameras and enhanced AI capabilities, stepping up competition with Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses in the growing AI-powered wearables market.
The Chinese technology company, which is building an end-to-end AI ecosystem covering data centres, software and consumer products, showcased its latest Qwen Glasses N1 series at an event in Hangzhou on Tuesday.
The glasses are priced from 2,999 yuan ($450) before discounts, putting them in a similar price bracket to Meta Platforms' Ray-Ban smart glasses, the market leader in the segment.
Like Meta, Alibaba aims to use smart glasses as a gateway for consumers to access its AI services and digital agents. Meta expanded its own smart glasses portfolio last month with a more basic camera-free version, priced at $349, which is primarily designed to let users interact with its new Muse AI assistant.
A higher-end Pro variant, priced at 3,499 yuan, also includes eye-tracking capabilities, Wu Jianjun, general manager of Qwen AI hardware products, said at the event.
According to Alibaba, the glasses can remain on standby for up to 25 hours on a single charge and support as much as nine hours of music playback. The launch comes around a year after the company's first edition was introduced in November. The new models offer closer integration with Alibaba's Qwen AI assistant, along with additional capabilities.
Users can communicate with the AI assistant through microphones that use bone-conduction technology. The devices also come with features for shopping, making payments and tracking health-related data.
Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu reiterated last month that the company intends to build a comprehensive AI business, covering everything from large language models and chatbot applications to AI processors and consumer hardware.
Separately, Alibaba has introduced Qwen Clip, a new pair of AI-powered earbuds intended to offer consumers a more accessible way to use its Qwen assistant. Developed in collaboration with audio equipment maker Bose, the earbuds are priced at 1,299 yuan.
Alibaba's AI infrastructure expansion
Alibaba plans to increase its global data centre capacity to more than 20 gigawatts (GW) by 2032, citing the rising demand for AI infrastructure.
“Alibaba will join forces with all our partners to commit fully to AI infrastructure development, forging an AI cloud designed for the Machine Intelligence era. Our target is that by 2032, the global data center capacity operated by Alibaba Cloud will surpass 20GW, fueling the industry’s exponentially rising demand for AI,” Wu said, according to ANI citing the release last month.