At the recent Rokid Open Day 2026 in Hangzhou, founder Zhu Mingming declared that the 'rocket has ignited' for the AI glasses industry. This bold proclamation comes as the company unveils YodaOS, a dedicated artificial intelligence operating system designed to move beyond the traditional smartphone-app paradigm. Rokid is positioning itself as a nimble alternative to China’s internet giants, betting that a decentralized, agent-centric architecture will define the next era of wearable computing.
Despite the optimism, the market is currently a battlefield of competing philosophies. Industry heavyweights like ByteDance, Alibaba, and Huawei are leveraging their vast 'closed' ecosystems, integrating proprietary large language models (LLMs) with established hardware distribution channels. Alibaba’s Qwen-powered glasses, for instance, have already captured over 30% of the online market share by deeply embedding services into its existing consumer ecosystem. This has forced startups into a defensive posture, competing against players with nearly limitless resource endowments.
Zhu Mingming argues that the industry is currently in its 'BlackBerry era'—a period defined by functional but unrefined devices awaiting a transformative shift. Just as the original iPhone moved the mobile industry from tactile keyboards to multi-touch interfaces, the AI glasses sector is searching for its own 'killer app.' The current challenge remains that most products are merely porting mobile applications to a head-mounted display, failing to utilize the unique spatial perception and 'always-on' nature of smart eyewear.
To counter the incumbents, Rokid is pivoting toward an 'open' strategy, focusing on B2B scenarios like museum exhibitions and industrial inspections to provide immediate revenue for developers. By fostering a developer ecosystem that big tech might overlook, Rokid aims to reach a critical mass of 2 million users. At this scale, they plan to introduce a novel 'token-based' revenue-sharing model, where developers are paid based on the computational workload of their AI agents rather than simple app subscriptions.
Market analysts suggest that while big tech firms enjoy optimized latency and power consumption through deep hardware-software coupling, startups offer the flexibility of cross-platform interaction. As open-source models continue to mature, the barrier to entry for hardware is lowering, shifting the primary competition to ecosystem richness. Whether the industry lands on a closed 'iOS-style' model or an open 'Android-style' framework, the consensus remains that the era of the AI agent is replacing the era of the App.