Looking Ahead to 2026: How XR Launches and Technology Innovations Will Propel the Market to New Heights

In 2025, Ray-Ban Meta no-display smart glasses experienced a boom in sales, with more than 2 million pairs sold since their October 2023 debut and sales revenue increased by more than 300% in 1H 2025. This sharp increase is driven by continuous software enhancements, including additions such as Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered features and live translation, accelerating consumer adoption with their lightweight and portable form factor. As a result, many other companies—Xiaomi’s AI glasses, RayNeo, XREAL—have also launched enhanced products.

With 2026 shaping up to be another key market for XR technologies, we expect to witness more major launches:

• XREAL’s Project Aura: Project Aura will boast a massive 70-degree Field of View (FoV) optical display for greater immersion and presence. It will run on the Android XR Operating System (OS) and uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipset—similar to Galaxy XR but in a lighter, more portable device designed for daily wear.
• Samsung’s Project Haean: Project Haean is going to be a pair of XR glasses suitable for outdoor activity use—in contrast to Project Moohan (head-mounted Galaxy XR device meant for indoor use). The glasses are also anticipated to have deep integration with Google’s Gemini chatbot.
• Google’s AI Smart Glasses: Google is planning to develop two different products—audio-only glasses that interface with Gemini, and eyewear with built-in navigation, translations, and other Augmented Reality (AR) displays. These glasses are developed in partnership with Samsung, Warby Parker, and Gentle Monster on hardware design, and will run on the Android XR Operating System (OS).
• Amazon’s Amelia Delivery Glasses: Amelia is a set of custom glasses designed specifically for delivery drivers and is currently not marketed to the general consumer market. While the product is still under the testing and prototyping phase, Amazon plans to eventually introduce it to drivers in North America before expanding globally.  
• Snap’s 6th Gen AR Glasses (Specs): The improved Specs will include AR features and come in a smaller and lighter form factor than their previous versions, running on Snap OS. Developers will also be able to incorporate Google’s Gemini AI models into programs, providing them with more AI options—as compared to earlier versions when developers could only use OpenAI’s GPT family of AI models to build AR apps for the smart glasses.  
• Valve’s Steam Frame VR Headset: Scheduled to be released in 2026, it demonstrates wireless PC streaming that runs on a Virtual Reality (VR)-optimized version of SteamOS. It is a fully standalone console, utilizing a Snapdragon processor and a rear-mounted battery.

What do these launches imply for industry players, and how will these developments shape the market, ecosystem landscape, and future technological advancements?

1. Market Impact: As we witness the rise in demand for these AR smart glasses due to their lightweight form factor and growing capabilities, the rollout of these advanced smart glasses is expected to speed up consumer adoption over the next few years. Moreover, the technological advancements for specific use cases are creating new demand for both the consumer and enterprise segments, such as manufacturing, logistics, and education, as companies look for ways to boost operational efficiency. In addition, ABI Research is witnessing a shift toward specific form factors—specifically display-free smart glasses—due to their compact and lightweight nature. While monocular and binocular smart glasses continue to be widely used in specialized fields like healthcare, energy and utilities, and government and military, display-free models are poised to capture a large share of demand from the consumer side. ABI Research forecasts that the number of display-free smart glasses shipments will grow from approximately 3.3 million in 2025 to 32.4 million in 2030, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 83.8%.
2. Competitive Impact: As mentioned in the examples above, strategic partnerships are crucial for companies looking to strengthen their market position in this evolving space. Collaborations with chipset, OS, hardware, and AI vendors can significantly enhance the smart glasses’ capabilities and overall user experience. Customers are likely to choose products based on how intuitive and familiar the interface feels, and how well the glasses can integrate with their existing wearable ecosystem. Additionally, with the increased number of competitive players in the market rushing to launch their version of smart glasses, competitive pressures are expected to drive prices down, benefiting consumers and accelerating adoption. For example, the Average Selling Price (ASP) for no-display glasses in the consumer segment was approximately US$330 in 2024, and that is expected to drop to around US$242 in 2030.
3. Technological Impact: With increased competition in the market, companies are actively working to enhance and improve their existing repertoire of products to differentiate themselves. These innovations can span optics and display technology (waveguides, FoV, holographic, and diffractive optics), AI and software features (real-time translation, object recognition, voice assistance), spatial computing (mapping and localization, mixed reality overlays, gesture recognition), power and battery innovations (longer battery life, fast charging and modular batteries, lightweight), form factor improvements (lighter, modular designs, comfort), and more. As a result, we can expect newer generations of smart glasses to offer significantly higher capabilities as companies continue to innovate.  

XR Hardware Vendors:

• Focus on reducing the weight of smart glasses hardware as customers prioritize comfort and lightweight features for extended wear. For example, LetinAR’s optical modules are produced using plastic injection-molded optical structures as compared to glass-based optics, making it lightweight and comfortable for long-term wear.
• Strengthen partnerships with optical suppliers, chipset vendors, and AI-stack providers. This will result in product differentiation to support clearer price segmentation.
• Build hardware around open standards (OpenXR, AndroidXR) to reduce development friction. For example, Samsung and XREAL smart glasses are compatible with Android XR OS, simplifying integration for developers and users.

Software Developers and Ecosystem Partners:

• Develop cross-platform XR applications to avoid fragmentation. For instance, Unity and Unreal Engine both support OpenXR, which allows developers to deploy to multiple devices with minimal changes.  
• Optimize app User Experience (UX) for hands-free, voice recognition, and gesture-limited interactions. For example, Ray-Ban Meta glasses utilize voice-first interactions (Hey Meta), and simple pinch/tap gestures, while Microsoft HoloLens 2 is designed heavily around hands-free workflows for field technicians.
• Build multi-modal applications leveraging spatial AI. This means incorporating object recognition (tools, machinery, and furniture) and allowing applications to respond dynamically to physical spaces. For example, Magic Leap 2 has spatial mapping features that enable interactions between digital content and actual physical surroundings.

Enterprises Considering Adoption of XR:

• Conduct pilot programs through partnerships with companies early and choose vendors with clear long-term roadmaps. For example, Shell utilizes AR headsets and digital twins for remote inspection in offshore oil & gas operations through HoloLens. In addition, companies such as Magic Leap extended their partnership with Google, demonstrating their commitment to becoming an ecosystem partner and innovator in the next generation of AR.
• Equip and train the team early and integrate XR into existing workflow tools.
• Evaluate hardware durability and technological features, especially for industry-specific use cases. For instance, in the oil & gas, manufacturing, and utilities sectors, the RealWear Navigator 500/ 520 offers rugged voice-control for hands-free operations, and swappable batteries, which are ideal for seamless operations.

Component Suppliers (optics, System on Chip (SoC), microLED):

• Increase manufacturing capacity as demand for waveguides/microLED rises. Scaling their capacity will reduce supply bottlenecks that cause delay in device launches.
• Collaborate and co-develop reference designs with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to accelerate time to market.
• Invest in power efficiency and microLED improvements. As consumers demand more compact wearables, power consumption becomes a critical design constraint. For instance, Qualcomm XR hardware platforms are designed to handle high processing needs of XR experiences without compromising on battery life and performance.