The Zhitong Finance App learned that according to Qunzhi Consulting data, global AR glasses shipments are expected to nearly double from 1.751 million units in 2026 to 3.482 million units in 2027. Among them, shipments of information-alert AR glasses are expected to increase from 971,000 units to 2.391 million units, which is growing faster than the overall market. In addition to the increase in market size, structural changes in full-color products are worth paying attention to. Qunzhi Consulting predicts that the information suggests that shipments of full-color AR glasses will increase from 192,000 units in 2026 to 1.161,000 units in 2027; the share of full-color AR shipments will increase from 19.77% to 48.56%, an increase of about 28.8 percentage points.
Information display drives the expansion of the AR glasses market
On October 27, Rokid released the binocular full-color AI glasses Rokid Color (using an X-Cube full-color micro LED optical machine and diffractive light waveguide, scheduled to be delivered in April 2027), providing a new observation sample for the commercialization process of full-color optical waveguides. On the same day, Thunderbird Innovation officially announced that the fourth generation of the Thunderbird iO+ binocular full-color AI glasses will be launched soon. As the brand continues to promote the layout of products with display functions, the AR glasses market is expected to further differentiate display configurations and application experiences while overall machine shipments grow.
According to data from Qunzhi Consulting, global AR glasses shipments are expected to nearly double from 1.751 million units in 2026 to 3.482 million units in 2027. Among them, shipments of information-alert AR glasses are expected to increase from 971,000 units to 2.391 million units, which is growing faster than the overall market.
Qunzhi Consulting believes that in the next one to two years, lightweight information display will be an important growth direction for AR glasses. Captions, navigation, suggestions, and AI answers can provide immediate information around more clear tasks. The requirements for continuous spatial perception and environmental interaction are relatively limited, making it easier to gradually integrate into everyday use.
Judging from usage scenarios, movie-watching products meet the need for large portable screens, while information-alert products provide short-term information feedback around commuting, communication, and work. The latter places more emphasis on lightness, transparency and timely response, and the product design will also revolve more around all-weather wear. The two types of requirements go hand in hand to help AR glasses cover a wider range of users.
The popularization of information displays also requires the formation of stable usage habits. Although the time to view a subtitle or navigation prompt is short, if users can switch less between the phone and the current task, there is an opportunity to increase the number of effective uses per day. Whether the machine market can continue to expand will depend more on whether these scattered demands can accumulate and be reused.
The proportion of full-color shipments is expected to rise from about 20% to close to 50%
In addition to the increase in market size, structural changes in full-color products are worth paying attention to. According to data from Qunzhi Consulting, the information suggests that shipments of full-color AR glasses are expected to increase from 192,000 units in 2026 to 1.161,000 units in 2027; the share of full-color AR shipments will increase from 19.77% to 48.56%, an increase of about 28.8 percentage points. According to forecasts, full-color shipments will increase by about 505% year-on-year in 2027. This increase is affected by the small full-color shipping base in 2026, and is more dependent on a small number of companies planning to launch new products in 2027. Predictive delivery depends on timely delivery of new products, stable supply of optical machines and waveguides, and assembly calibration and batch consistency to meet mass production requirements. If key projects are delayed, yield improvements fall short of expectations, or full-color applications fail to achieve continuous use, shipment scale and penetration rate may fall short of expectations.
Qunzhi Consulting believes that the full-color solution will have the opportunity to inform AR glasses to form a larger shipping scale and drive investment from more brands and application developers. The value of full color will also extend from rich interface colors to presenting images, visual markers, and task guides to help users understand information beyond text.
Single green products will continue to occupy an important position. Subtitles, translations, and suggestions are text-based, and display clarity, responsiveness, and consistent wearing experience often have a more direct impact on use. Full color is more suitable for preserving image relationships, distinguishing states, and establishing a hierarchy of information. Different display configurations are expected to continue to evolve in parallel around task requirements.
The growth of full-color products is expected to be reflected first in the enrichment of the brand's product line. Some models continue to serve text tasks, and some models expand the scope of use through images and visual markings. Brands can iterate display configurations around different needs, and app developers will also get more adaptation samples to gradually verify which functions are suitable for presentation on the glasses.
As more full-color products enter the market, the dimensions of evaluation display capabilities will also become more diverse. Users need to quickly identify content in different lighting, head positions, and wearing positions. There are differences in clarity and color requirements for text, images, and status alerts, so full-color penetration will push brands to incorporate application content into optical and interface designs earlier.
Power consumption and battery life are still important constraints for everyday wear. Under similar brightness, field of view, refresh rate, and the same text tasks, single green is usually more useful for controlling power consumption on the display side. When the battery energy is the same and other functional loads are close, this advantage has the opportunity to translate into longer continuous display battery life. Full-color products require multi-color driving and color balance. Viewing color applications such as images and videos will increase power consumption, thereby reducing battery life.
The advancement of full-color optical waveguides depends on collaboration between application and mass production
Qunzhi Consulting believes that image applications that can be viewed for a short period of time and displayed as needed are expected to be prioritized. For example, when comparing products, they show differences in appearance. After identifying devices, operating instructions with pictures are provided, and direction and status are distinguished through color during navigation. With a limited field of view and power, this content is easier to combine with the user's current tasks.
Once the content is rich, the way it interacts also needs to be adjusted. Images and lists require users to be able to easily select, confirm, and return, and input methods such as voice, mirror leg, and ring can be divided according to the scene. Brands need to design interfaces around few operations, quick understanding, and timely exit, so that information appears when needed and reduces the use of realistic vision.
Application requirements will be further transmitted to optical machines and waveguides. The miniaturization of optical machines requires balancing light output, power consumption and heat dissipation, and maintaining usable brightness, color, and uniformity after the image enters the waveguide. Supplier competition will be reflected more in the overall image quality after device combinations and whether these performances can be consistent in mass-produced products.
Full-color Micro LED will continue to evolve along the path of three-chip color matching (X-Cube), quantum dot color conversion, and RGB vertical stacking. Quantum efficiency, color matching accuracy, and optical machine miniaturization outside of red light are still key links; LCoS is still an important option for full-color solutions due to its maturity in color and brightness. The lens end uses high refractive index materials such as silicon carbide, single layer full color, full fit, and prescription lens integration to improve weight, thickness, and fit. Each path requires verification of image quality, durability, and mass production consistency.
As full-color product shipments expand, collaboration between optical machines, waveguides, assembly, and calibration will become more important. Suppliers that can proactively participate in terminal design, improve batch consistency, and stable delivery have more opportunities to expand their share of cooperation. The increase in terminal demand will also provide more opportunities for mass production verification of these capabilities.
Summarize
Qunzhi Consulting believes that the expansion of AR glasses and the increase in the share of full color will enable the industry to simultaneously face an increase in demand scale and an upgrade in display capabilities. As AI answers expand from text to images and operating instructions, full-color displays are expected to allow glasses to take on more task-assist functions, and the speed of penetration will also depend more closely on whether these functions can be integrated into everyday use.
This change will further enhance the requirements for collaboration in the optical waveguide industry. The richer the tasks carried by full-color images, the more the optical solution needs to maintain a clear and stable display under actual wearing conditions, and be optimized together with the optical machine, the complete machine and interactive design. Suppliers that can transform application requirements into optical design requirements and continue to fulfill them in mass production have more opportunities to enter the brand's long-term product planning.
In the next one to two years, delivery of new products and continued use by users will jointly test the commercialization progress of full-color solutions. For optical waveguide companies, reusing proven design, calibration, and manufacturing capabilities in a single project to subsequent products is expected to improve competitiveness in the next round of cooperation. The ability to support continuous iteration of terminals will become an important foundation for full-color optical waveguide companies to expand their long-term advantages.