(By Wan Zhaosheng, Edited by Zhang Guangkai)

Can the price of 6999 yuan enable AR glasses to find their ecological niche?

Recently, a new player has entered the increasingly popular AR glasses market. The smart glasses company Multi-Screen Future (INAIR) officially released its latest product, "INAIR AI Space Computer," claiming it to be "the world's first mass-produced AI space computer." The official recommended price is 6999 yuan.

Compared to many domestic AR products that have reduced prices to two or three thousand yuan in an attempt to increase industry penetration through low pricing, INAIR, as a relatively young entrant, has chosen a price point that is not cheap. Where does INAIR's confidence in this pricing come from?

All images in the article are INAIR official promotional images.

In fact, INAIR itself stands out as unique. Unlike people's impression of technology companies mostly located in first and second-tier cities, INAIR comes from Weihai, Shandong Province.

Public records show that INAIR Multi-Screen Future was established in 2022. It is a company focused on AR+AI glasses for light office scenarios, aiming to provide consumers with an alternative to laptops. Its co-founder and CEO Huang Hai once worked at Broadcom and Intel, responsible for defining and developing multi-chip platforms, with over ten years of XR product research experience. Recently, the company has officially completed tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing, led by Weihai Venture Capital, with continued support from existing shareholders such as True Knowledge Venture Capital.

Besides its location, INAIR's product definition also stands out.

INAIR introduced that the newly launched "AI Space Computer" focuses on productivity scenarios, including three core hardware components—the AR glasses INAIR 2 Pro, the independent computing center INAIR Pod, and the 3D spatial operation keyboard INAIR Touchboard. These three components are integrated into an "external docking station" with charging capabilities, similar to a laptop.

This reveals INAIR's understanding of this product—it is more like a second laptop than just a pair of glasses.

In today's XR market, routes represented by Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest emphasize extreme functionality, but heavy equipment and scarce ecosystems make them difficult to popularize; domestic PICO has been quiet for some time. Routes represented by Ray-Ban Meta and Xreal, on the other hand, introduce appropriate vertical needs based on lightness and ease of use, and under the support of AI technology, cost-effectiveness gradually becomes apparent in the low-price market.

However, INAIR seems to be taking a middle route, achieving excellent display effects with high hardware configurations while focusing on vertical scene demands—office work.

Specifically, the INAIR 2 Pro AR glasses adopt the BB (BirdBath) optical solution, equipped with Sony Micro-OLED display technology identical to Apple Vision Pro, weighing 77g, with a PPD angular resolution of 49, supporting 120Hz high refresh rate and 3DOF spatial suspension. The nearly 158g spatial computing host INAIR Pod is about the size of a mouse yet integrates system, interaction, and power supply functions, featuring Qualcomm Snapdragon 7-series 8-core chips and a circular touch screen. When combined with the glasses, multiple window displays can be achieved in virtual space.

This allows the glasses to achieve multiple wide-field-of-view window displays, with performance sufficient to meet office needs. After remote network connection with mobile phones, computers, and other devices, business travelers only need to carry one set of glasses to enable remote work.

Functionally, the INAIR AI Space Computer also features a system-level AI assistant called "INAIR AI Agent," which integrates with several domestic large models such as DeepSeek, DouBao, Wenxin Yiyan, and Zhigu Qingyan.

Observer Network found that the above two devices can be purchased independently on JD.com, priced at 3200 yuan for the glasses (before national subsidies) and 1999 yuan for the host. As for the dimension keyboard INAIR Touchboard, no standalone sales model has been seen yet.

The entire "INAIR AI Space Computer" set also includes INAIR Hub for plug-and-play charging, INAIR Case for integrated portability, and other accessories. Although the official recommended price of 6999 yuan is expected to launch in June, personal editions are already available for pre-order on platforms like JD.com, showing a price of 5499 yuan after a deposit of 100 yuan is paid.

Among currently available AR glasses, besides bulky headsets and less mature waveguide solutions, most use the BB solution. This provides good display quality but is larger and heavier compared to regular glasses. Companies like Leidar, XREAL, and Rokid typically sell controllers as part of the package, with prices generally not exceeding 5000 yuan. By combining external keyboards and other devices to form a space computer, INAIR is the first to do so, clearly demonstrating its user choice—frequent business travelers.

INAIR's team believes that AR glasses are better suited for mobile and portable scenarios, where user intimacy will be higher. INAIR Co-founder and CEO Huang Hai also stated that this product can be intuitively understood as "cutting into the ecosystem of laptops."

How many consumers are willing to spend 6999 yuan specifically for a "second laptop" to meet travel needs remains questionable. However, INAIR's approach still shows that current AR devices can only try to enter niche markets and gradually find their positioning through trial and error.

Huang Hai admitted that he cannot see what the threshold for AR glasses to break into the mass market is right now, but he believes that reaching a sales volume of millions might be a pretty good sign.

This article is an exclusive piece by Observer Network and cannot be reprinted without permission.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7507110708757185033/

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