XREAL claims to have shipped “up to” 350,000 pairs of augmented reality (AR) glasses since its inception in 2017.
The news comes after market watcher IDC said XREAL was responsible for 51 percent of all AR glasses shipped in Q3 last year, making it the dominant player.
Formally known as NREAL, the firm revealed it was close to hitting 200,000 shipments in July last year.
Chi Xu, Founder and CEO at XREAL, said: “Today we celebrate a major milestone on our journey to bring AR wearable displays to everyone around the world, revolutionizing how people experience everything from video games to movies and TV, in-car entertainment and displays, and how they work at their desks or on the go.
“Having secured a major foothold in the global wearable display market, XREAL is now in a stronger position to embrace market momentum and reaffirm its position as the leading, best-selling AR glasses and spatial computing brand in the world today, who’s trajectory is outpacing the rest of the industry combined.”
According to IDC, the worldwide AR market is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 89 percent between 2022 and 2027.
IDC also published data for the combined AR and virtual reality (VR) market in December last year.
As expected, shipments of VR headsets dwarf those of AR glasses. Shipments of VR headsets in the first three quarters of last year stood at 7.6 million compared to half a million for AR glasses – with Meta the dominant player.
IDC said shipments of the combined devices will likely have seen a decline by the time all data is gathered, but is optimistic of a rebound this year. Meta released the Quest 3 towards the back end of 2023 and Apple takes its first foray into the market with the Vision Pro this year.
XREAL alluded to both these headsets in its press release:
“As the global leader in consumer AR devices, XREAL’s AR glasses are a lightweight, more comfortable, more affordable alternative to Apple’s Vision Pro and Meta’s Quest 3,” it said.
“Packing in advanced optics and environment sensing technology, XREAL AR glasses are the ultimate spatial computing companion.”
