Alibaba priced its new Quark AI glasses at $660, a more tempting offer than Meta’s new $800 Ray-Ban Display version, as it looks to compete on price in the AI hardware space. It’s difficult to compare the two devices, though, because Meta’s version is controlled by a wristband that works by reading the electrical signals in the user’s muscles. The wristband is the real innovation and could eventually be a platform in itself that allows third-party developers to integrate wristband controls into other software.
Considering the Alibaba version is just a pair of glasses, the price is actually pretty comparable. Where Alibaba might have an edge is on the back-end AI powering the device: The company’s Qwen language models have been popular with developers.