A few days ago, the news of ByteDance's acquisition of Oladance swept the screen in the XR circle, and the industry generally believes that this is ByteDance preparing for AI smart glasses.
In fact, for this acquisition, some insiders commented that this is following Meta's example. However, from another perspective, this may be the only way for similar giants to enter the XR market. ByteDance does not allow itself to walk on one leg with only VR or MR in the XR field, and may have to walk on two legs, while AR smart glasses or smart glasses must be put on the agenda.
On the other side of the XR market, perhaps ByteDance can also feel the pressure. For example, Meta has gained a firm foothold in smart glasses, and its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have become a hit, with third-party estimates that 1 million units have been sold. Moreover, it has already teased that its next product will be AR glasses.
For another example, Apple, which led the era of spatial computing with Vision Pro, is also making efforts to develop AR glasses. According to the patent application recently published in the United States, Apple has designed a smart glasses that use the design of "main and auxiliary dual screens + LED arrays", which can transmit different types of information. In terms of design alone, it's very playable.
In other words, the giants are all under the increase in smart glasses, and there is not much time left for ByteDance. ByteDance's acquisition of Oladance may be an important move for him to quickly enter the field of smart glasses, at least in terms of audio technology.
01. Is Byte going to make smart glasses?
Recently, there was news in the market that ByteDance had acquired the OWS company Oladance brand Big Ten Technology in March this year. In this regard, the industry believes that ByteDance is expected to launch smart glasses in the future.
According to public information, Oladance is an audio brand owned by Shenzhen Dashi Future Technology Co., Ltd.; At the same time, Oladance is also a technical "bull" in the field of headphones. Founded in June 2019 by former BOSE executive Li Haoqian and a number of BOSE engineers, Oladance is an innovation-driven consumer electronics brand.
In September 2021, as the world's first pioneer of OWS (Open Wearable Stereo) technology, Oladance announced the concept of OWS technology for the first time, creating a new track for wearable devices. According to the official website, Oladance has users in 30+ countries around the world.
According to media reports in August last year, Oladance completed an angel round of financing with a scale of 10 million US dollars, which was led by Lanchi Venture Capital and Black Ant Capital, and followed by Bee Qiao Capital.
Li Haoqian, founder of Oladance, told the media that the funds raised in this round of financing are planned to be used for technology and new product research and development, supply chain improvement, consumer services and brand building.
The industry generally believes that ByteDance's acquisition of the brand is to prepare for the next AI smart glasses. According to media reports, in 2022, ByteDance will have an AR project. Now that Oladance, an excellent audio manufacturer, is in the bag, it is or may graft audio technology to smart glasses in the future.
On the other hand, in 2021, ByteDance spent a huge amount of money to acquire PICO, and through operation, it became a giant in the domestic VR industry in one fell swoop. IDC data shows that in 2023, China will ship 463,000 VR units. Among them, PICO ranked first with a market share (shipments) of 56.6%.
However, in recent years, there have been frequent reports of layoffs at PICO. For example, in November last year, there was news of PICO layoffs in the market, and the layoffs are expected to account for 80% of the workforce, after this "structural adjustment". The total number of Pico employees will be reduced from 2,000 to a few hundred, with only a few basic capabilities retained.
In addition, at the end of last year, it was also rumored in the market that ByteDance canceled the development of PICO 5, or the strategic transformation followed Apple's example to promote a high-end MR headset.
Nowadays, every move of this giant seems to be attracting the attention of the XR circle, if ByteDance wants to make smart glasses or AR glasses in the future, it will undoubtedly make up for its lack of AR or smart glasses, and realize a comprehensive all-round understanding in the field of XR headsets.
02. Running out of time for bytes?
Nowadays, every move of this giant seems to be attracting the attention of the XR circle, and if ByteDance wants to make smart glasses in the future, can it really be done, and whether it will encounter "Waterloo", it remains to be tested by time.
However, in addition to VR headsets, XR giant Meta has long laid out smart glasses, but the road seems to be a little tortuous. In September 2021, Meta and Ray-Ban jointly released the first generation of smart glasses, but the market response was not good.
However, in September last year, at the Meta developer conference "Meta Connect", Meta continued to work with Ray-Ban to launch the new Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
It is understood that Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have a tough sunglasses design, and have three colors of blue, black and brown for consumers to choose from, and there are LED indicators and cameras distributed in the left and right corners of the glasses to remind others that they are recording videos.
At the same time, the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chip. It is also the first smart glasses with built-in Meta AI. This makes the glasses support Meta AI, an AI assistant function, which can wake up the assistant for assistance functions by shouting "Hey Meta".
However, the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses do not currently support AR functionality. However, it is indeed a popular product in terms of sales, and there is information that in Meta's last earnings call, Zuckerberg even mentioned that many styles have been sold out. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are estimated to have sold 1 million units by a third party.
Not long ago, Meta teased its next major product, the first AR glasses. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of its RealityLabs division, Meta released a blog post in which Meta mentioned the AR glasses.
Meta said that Quest3 provides an engaging mixed reality experience, allowing users to fully immerse themselves in the physical world and digital content at the same time, while Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses allow users to enjoy the practicality and entertainment of MetaAI, and AR glasses will integrate these two technology paths to achieve the "best of both worlds".
Obviously, Meta has established itself in smart glasses, and the next AR smart glasses are coming. On the other hand, Apple, which led the era of spatial computing with Vision Pro, is also working on AR glasses.
Recently, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially released a patent application from Apple. The application relates to Apple's future smart glasses products.
According to public information, in order to save battery life, Apple has designed a smart glasses that use the design of "main and auxiliary dual screens + LED arrays", which can transmit different types of information.
It is worth noting that the triple display system is a major feature of Apple's future smart glasses. The system incorporates three display formats, including a primary display, a secondary display, and a tertiary display in the form of an LED light ring.
The main display occupies the user's main field of view in high resolution and is used for browsing pictures, watching videos, and performing complex interactions; The secondary display, which has a lower resolution, is responsible for the initial presentation of virtual objects and can be taken over by the primary display when the user needs to interact deeply with a specific object.
The third level of display is an array of LEDs around the inner frame of the glasses, providing basic alerts and indications, as well as the ability to change color and blink patterns depending on the application.
In fact, it is not difficult to see that the design of Apple's triple display system is quite ingenious and very interesting, once the future product is landed, it will surely attract a lot of attention, and many consumers may "try it" to pay.
From another point of view, Apple and Meta are putting smart glasses or AR glasses on the agenda, that is to say, if ByteDance wants to make achievements in the field of smart glasses in the future, there may not be much time left for him, and the acquisition of Oladance may be an important move to cut into the track as soon as possible.