Tomorrow, 22 July 2026, Samsung unveils its first smart glasses, the Galaxy Glasses, powered by Google's Gemini AI, in London, to take on Meta's Ray-Bans that dominate the Western market. But the real upheaval comes from China: Chinese manufacturers are expected to account for around 45% of the global AI glasses market in 2026, with more than 22 million units. The race to succeed the smartphone is on, and it's global.
Some objects move from gadget to revolution without anyone noticing right away. Smart glasses are going through that shift right now. Long mocked, associated with the failure of Google Glass in 2015, they are coming back in force, this time carried by one decisive difference: artificial intelligence. And this week marks a turning point, with Samsung entering the fray tomorrow. An overview of a planetary battle.
Why now, and why it changes everything
The first generation of smart glasses wanted to put a screen in front of your eyes. It was bulky, expensive, and nobody wanted it. The current generation makes the opposite bet: most have no screen at all. Instead, they pack a camera, microphones, speakers, and above all an AI capable of seeing what you see and talking to you.
The principle is multimodality, which we explained in our dedicated article: an AI that processes image and sound together. You look at a monument, you ask what it is, the AI answers. You stare at a menu in a foreign language, it translates it into your ear. You're cooking with your hands full, it reads you the recipe. The screen is no longer necessary, because the AI serves as the interface. That's what makes these glasses suddenly useful, where previous ones were merely a technical feat.
The stakes go beyond convenience. According to several industry players, the smartphone has hit its physical limits in screen size and interaction modes. AI glasses are seen as a serious candidate for the title of next mobile terminal, the potential successor to the phone. Hence the rush from all the giants, because nobody wants to miss the next iPhone.
Samsung enters the stage tomorrow
On 22 July 2026, at its Galaxy Unpacked event in London, Samsung is expected to unveil its first Galaxy Glasses, codenamed Jinju. Co-designed with premium eyewear brand Gentle Monster, they run on Android XR, the platform developed by Google for connected devices, with Gemini AI built in.
With no screen in this first version, they would reportedly rely on a 12-megapixel camera, speakers and microphones, a profile very close to Meta's Ray-Bans. Their differentiating argument would be the depth of Gemini, connected to Google Maps, Search and the Android ecosystem. On price, leaks point to a range between $379 and $499, with one important caveat: tomorrow's announcement does not mean immediate availability, as Samsung itself has indicated a commercial rollout spread across autumn in selected markets. A version with a screen, codenamed Haean, is expected for 2027.
Samsung's strength isn't the hardware, it's the ecosystem. The AI glasses market rewards the brand that's already in your pocket. If you have a Galaxy phone, Galaxy glasses that connect to it naturally become a logical extension. Indeed, several leaks suggest these glasses would have no on-board computing and would delegate all processing to the paired phone. The smartphone remains the brain, the glasses become the eyes and ears. That's also why Google is pushing so hard: every pair sold anchors Gemini a little more into daily life, exactly as we observed regarding the Gemini deal to power Siri.
Meta, the incumbent giant
Against Samsung, Meta starts with a considerable lead. The company has sold more than seven million pairs of its Ray-Ban glasses, and has extended its exclusive manufacturing partnership with the EssilorLuxottica group until 2034. That lead shows in product maturity, in-store distribution and brand recognition.
Market figures are telling: over 2025 as a whole, Meta accounted for around 85% of global AI glasses shipments. The company has no plans to stop there, with reports suggesting up to four new models in 2026, including a next-generation Ray-Ban expected around its Meta Connect conference, scheduled for 23 and 24 September. Its glasses run on its own in-house AI, Meta AI, giving it total control over the experience, unlike Samsung, which depends on Google.
The real upheaval: China has already taken the lead
Here's what most Western comparisons miss. While Samsung prepares and Meta consolidates, Chinese manufacturers have quietly captured a massive share of the market. Research firm IDC forecasts that Chinese brands will account for 45% of the global AI glasses market in 2026, with shipments reaching 22.67 million units, up 56% year on year.
The trend is already visible in the rankings. In the first quarter of 2026, four of the world's top five smart glasses sellers were Chinese. In China itself, Xiaomi leads with around 28% market share, ahead of Alibaba at 21%. And the diversity of players is striking: tech giants, telecom operators, appliance makers, display specialists, all have jumped in.
Each Chinese player has its specialty. Xiaomi bets on its distribution and its gigantic ecosystem, from phones to electric cars. Alibaba has launched its Quark glasses powered by its in-house Qwen model, integrating translation, navigation and payment directly into its ecosystem, with an entry-level model around $268. RayNeo, a TCL subsidiary, is pushing immersive augmented display. Rokid and XREAL target enterprise and spatial computing. Together, RayNeo, XREAL and Viture accounted for 96% of global video-centric AR glasses shipments in the second half of 2025.
One element went unnoticed in the West: in 2026, smart glasses were included for the first time in China's national subsidy catalogue. In practice, the state helps with purchases, which pushes distributors to build inventory and encourages consumers to try the category. It's an accelerator neither the US nor Europe has, and it partly explains the dizzying growth of the Chinese market, which jumped more than 100% in a year.
And Apple in all this?
The big absentee in this battle is, for once, Apple. The Cupertino company, which started the smartphone movement and then the smartwatch, appears to be behind on AI glasses. Rumours point to a launch only in 2027, or at best a preview presentation before then, with no certainty. Apple is said to have chosen to take its time, true to its usual strategy of only arriving when the product is mature. It's a risky bet: in a market that could define the next computing terminal, arriving two years after everyone else is no small matter.
What to remember
Smart glasses are having their tipping-point moment, driven by AI that replaces the screen with a voice and a gaze. Samsung enters tomorrow into a battle where Meta dominates the West and where China, carried by Xiaomi, Alibaba and a host of specialists, already captures nearly half of the global market. It's the same dynamic seen in AI models themselves, where Chinese players are gaining ground against Western giants that are better established but more expensive.
One note of caution, however: most of the Galaxy Glasses specifications remain unconfirmed leaks ahead of tomorrow's announcement, and privacy questions, crucial for a device that constantly films what you're looking at, remain largely open. A camera on your face raises privacy issues that no manufacturer has truly solved yet, neither in the West nor in China.
Then there's the big question, still unanswered: will these glasses really be the smartphone's successor, or just another accessory that finds its audience without replacing it? The industry's founders themselves place the real tipping point, their "iPhone moment", around 2027 or 2028. 2026 would only be the beginning. But a beginning that no giant, except perhaps Apple, can afford to watch from afar.